( «v  v';  Y ' 

V  -  ;    K,'  -  - 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
AT   LOS  ANGELES 


CYRIL  GEORGE  HOPKINS 


In  cMemoriam 
Cyril  George  Hopkins 


Eighteen  Hundred  and  Sixty-Six 
cNineteen  Hundred  and  Nineteen 


I Q22 


NO 

*) 
i 
«1 


i 


Y  this  record  of  the  Memorial  Exercises 
following  the  passing  of  Doctor  Hopkins, 
irt  the  University  of  Illinois  pays  lasting  tribute 

CO 

to  the  character,  the  scholarship,  and  the  ser- 

^  vice  of  one  of  the  most  distinguished  members 

>— i 

CL  of  its  faculty. 

UJ 

en 


BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH 

YRIL  GEORGE  HOPKINS  was  born  upon  a  farm 
near  Chatfield,  Minnesota,  on  July  22,  1866.  As  a 
small  child  he  moved  with  his  parents  to  South 
Dakota,  where,  as  he  grew  up,  he  lived  the  life  of 
the  pioneer.  While  teaching  country  school  as  a 
means  of  earning  money  for  a  college  course,  he  nearly  lost 
his  life  in  a  blizzard  when  caring  for  the  children  under  his 
charge,  a  loss  he  would  have  cheerfully  met  rather  than 
abandon  his  duty,  as  his  later  life  abundantly  testified. 

He  was  graduated  from  South  Dakota  Agricultural  College, 
at  Brookings,  in  1890,  obtained  his  state  teacher's  certificate  in 
1891,  earned  his  master's  degree  at  Cornell  in  1894,  and  his 
doctor's  degree  in  1898.  A  year  later,  1899-1900,  he  studied 
agricultural  chemistry  at  Gottingen. 

Doctor  Hopkins  began  his  college  service  immediately  after 
graduation,  serving  as  Assistant  in  Agricultural  Chemistry  in 
his  Alma  Mater  from  1890-1892,  then  in  Cornell  during  1892- 
1893,  returning  to  Brookings  as  Acting  Professor  of  Pharmacy 
during  1893-1894.  In  May,  1893,  he  married  Emma  Matilda 
Stelter,  of  Brookings. 

In  the  autumn  of  1894,  he  was  appointed  Chemist  of  the 
Agricultural  Experiment  Station  of  the  University  of  Illinois. 
This  responsible  position  he  held  continuously  thereafter.  In 
accepting  the  appointment,  Doctor  Hopkins  made  a  reser- 
vation covering  his  purpose  to  work  for  the  doctorate,  and 
this  he  secured  at  Cornell  four  years  later,  offering  as  a  thesis 
his  famous  treatise  "The  Chemistry  of  the  Corn  Kernel,"  re- 
porting a  piece  of  work  which  he  had  begun  at  the  University 
of  Illinois. 

ii 


CYRIL  GEORGE  HOPKINS 

It  was  the  desire  to  prosecute  further  studies  with  starch 
that  took  him  to  Germany  a  year  later;  and  while  there,  he 
was  appointed  Professor  of  Soil  'Fertility  and  Head  of  the 
newly  organized  Department  of  Agronomy  of  the  University 
of  Illinois  in  1900,  a  position  tendered  and  accepted  by  cable, 
and  one  which  he  held  until  his  death.  In  1903  he  was  ap- 
pointed Vice-Director  of  the  Agricultural  Experiment  Station. 

It  was  characteristic  of  the  man  that  he  said  long  after- 
ward, "I  accepted  the  position  to  head  the  agronomy  interests, 
not  because  I  coveted  prominence  and  responsibility  or  because 
I  felt  myself  qualified,  but  because  such  men  as  President 
Draper,  Doctor  Burrill,  Professor  Forbes,  and  the  Dean  of 
the  College  considered  that  I  was  the  best  available  man ;  and 
whenever  four  equally  good  men  feel  that  another  is  better 
qualified,  then  I  am  ready  to  surrender  the  position  at  any 
time."  And  in  this  statement  he  was  perfectly  sincere. 

He  threw  himself  at  once  and  unreservedly  into  the  prob- 
lems of  the  department.  In  attempting  to  discover  its  field 
of  service  to  the  Commonwealth  he  organized  a  soil  survey 
of  the  state,  the  most  comprehensive  ever  undertaken,  and  he 
studied  the  problem  of  production  from  the  standpoint  of 
maintaining  unimpaired  the  power  of  the  soil  to  produce  crops. 
His  textbook,  "Soil  Fertility  and  Permanent  Agriculture," 
embodies  the  results  of  his  studies  both  scientific  and  philo- 
sophical, and  has  long  been  recognized  as  a  classic. 

Doctor  Hopkins  lost  no  opportunity  to  preach  the  doctrine 
of  soil  conservation  and  this  disposition  to  serve,  combined 
with  a  desire  to  broaden  his  experience,  led  him  in  1913  to 
accept  for  one  year  the  position  as  Director  of  the  Southern 
Settlement  and  Development  Organization  with  headquarters 
at  Baltimore. 

It  is  needless  to  observe  that  it  was  as  Professor  of  Soil 
Fertility  that  Doctor  Hopkins  performed  his  great  service  to 
mankind.  This  is  not  the  place  to  speak  of  that  service  fur- 
ther than  to  say  that  he  literally  put  his  life  into  the  problem 

12 


BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH 

of  permanent  agriculture,  holding  himself  at  any  time  ready 
to  meet  any  sacrifice  in  the  line  of  duty,  and  no  martyr  ever 
journeyed  where  duty  led  more  cheerfully  than  did  he. 

It  was  this  spirit  that  took  him  to  Greece  in  an  effort  to  do 
something  that  might  help  to  heal  the  wounds  of  a  war  that 
he  bitterly  deplored  and  whose  methods  of  combat  he  vigor- 
ously resented.  It  was  during  this  year's  service  that  he  con- 
tracted the  ailment  that  cost  his  life  and  deprived  the  world  of 
one  of  its  most  valuable  scientists  and  benefactors  in  the  very 
zenith  of  his  powers.  He  worked  cruelly  hard  in  Greece,  in 
company  with  his  old  friend  and  student,  Dr.  George 
Bouyoucos,  of  Michigan.  He  collected  and  analyzed  hundreds 
of  samples  of  soil,  cb»w  his  conclusions,  made  complete  re- 
ports, was  decora^|Ky  the  King  with  the  rarely  bestowed 
Order  of  Our  Sj^iour,  and  sailed  for  home  in  what  seemed 
to  be  a  perfect  state  of  health,  only  to  be  stricken  four  days 
later  with  an  attack  of  malaria,  from  which  he  died  at  the 
British  Military  Hospital  at  Gibraltar  on  October  6,  1919. 

Memorial  exercises  were  held  at  the  University  of  Illinois 
on  January  22,  1920,  of  which  this  little  volume  is  the  record. 

So  closed  the  career  of  one  of  the  noblest  characters  the 
world  has  ever  known ;  a  scientist  of  the  highest  order  and  a 
benefactor  to  mankind  ;  a  firm  friend  and  a  courteous  Christian 
gentleman. 

EUGENE  DAVENPORT 


ORGANIZATIONS  OF  WHICH 
DOCTOR  HOPKINS  WAS  A  MEMBER 

Doctor  Hopkins  was  a  member  of  the  following  organiza- 
tions: American  Chemical  Society;  Association  of  the  Offi- 
cial Agricultural  Chemists  (President,  1905-06) ;  American 
Society  of  Agronomy;  American  Breeders'  Association; 
Illinois  Corn  Breeders'  Association ;  fellow  in  the  American 
Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science;  Illinois  State 
Academy  of  Science;  Sigma  Xi;  Phi  Lambda  Upsilon; 
Alpha  Zeta. 


ADDRESSES   DELIVERED 
AT   THE    MEMORIAL    EXERCISES 


THE  EARLIER  YEARS  OF  DOCTOR  HOPKINS' 
SCIENTIFIC  CAREER 

By  LOUIE  HENEIE  SMITH 
Professor  of  Plant  Breeding,  University  of  Illinois 

T^HE  importance  and  the  renown  of  Doctor  Hopkins'  great 
JL  work  in  the  field  of  soil  fertility  has  naturally  tended  to 
overshadow  his  other  scientific  accomplishments,  and  it  is 
doubtless  true  that  thousands  of  people  who  knew  Doctor 
Hopkins  well  as  a  great  soil  expert  have  no  knowledge  what- 
ever of  his  valuable  work  along  other  lines.  It  would  be  a 
mistake  indeed  if  on  this  occasion  these  other  scientific  ac- 
complishments were  to  be  overlooked.  To  me,  therefore,  has 
been  assigned  the  privilege  of  calling  attention  briefly  to  some 
of  these  earlier  activities  of  Doctor  Hopkins  before  he  entered 
upon  that  field  that  finally  claimed  him  for  his  great  life  work 
and  for  which  he  will  always  be  known. 

Perhaps  my  purpose  can  best  be  accomplished  by  recount- 
ing in  somewhat  narrative  form  certain  of  the  more  interesting 
events  of  the  earlier  years  of  Doctor  Hopkins'  connection  with 
the  University  of  Illinois. 

Doctor  Hopkins  came  to  Illinois  in  1894  to  take  the  position 
of  Chemist  of  the  Agricultural  Experiment  Station.  He  had 
been  graduated  from  the  College  of  Agriculture  of  South 
Dakota  and  had  been  an  assistant  to  Doctor  Shepard,  the 
chemist  of  that  station.  He  had  also  had  some  experience  in 
college  teaching,  having  conducted  the  course  in  pharmacy. 
He  had  not,  however,  completed  his  education  to  his  satisfac- 
tion and  one  of  the  conditions  of  acceptance  of  his  new  position 
was  a  provision  for  leave  of  absence  to  pursue  graduate  study. 
He  had  already  spent  some  months  at  Cornell  University 
and  in  two  periods  of  leave  from  Illinois  he  returned  to  Cornell 
and  finished  first  the  work  for  his  master's  degree  and  finally 
the  work  for  his  doctor's  degree. 

19 


CYRIL  GEORGE  HOPKINS 

One  of  the  first  problems  that  Doctor  Hopkins  took  up 
after  his  arrival  at  Illinois,  as  indicated  by  the  title  of  the  first 
publication  of  the  Experiment  Station  to  bear  his  name,  was 
a  study  of  the  composition  and  digestibility  of  corn  ensilage, 
cowpea  ensilage,  soja  bean  ensilage,  and  corn  fodder. 

My  own  earliest  recollection  of  Doctor  Hopkins  is  in  con- 
nection with  this  work,  and  I  picture  in  my  mind  now  the  old- 
fashioned  mercury  air-pump  in  his  laboratory  up  there  on  the 
third  floor  of  what  was  then  the  Chemistry  Building,  but  which 
now  shelters  the  College  of  Law,  where  hour  after  hour  we 
worked  on  that  everlasting  job  of  crude-fiber  determination, 
he  with  his  characteristic  patience  and  accuracy  carefully 
washing  out  the  fiber  from  the  acid  and  alkali  extractions,  and 
I  cranking  that  old  mercury  pump.  The  routine  nature  of  this 
kind  of  laboratory  work  did  not  demand  such  strenuous  mental 
application  but  that  there  was  some  opportunity  for  conversa- 
tion. That  opportunity,  I  may  say,  was  not  neglected,  and  so 
chemistry,  agriculture,  politics,  religion,  and  philosophy  were 
freely  discussed  and  at  times  even  a  late  story  was  exchanged. 
Those  were  rare  days,  and  many  a  time  in  later  years  when  re- 
sponsibilities multiplied  and  departmental  affairs  became  so 
intricate  that  the  opportunity  for  a  short,  necessary  confer- 
ence with  the  Doctor  sometimes  required  days  of  waiting,  I 
have  looked  back  to  those  old  days  with  some  regret,  and 
with  great  appreciation,  for  the  opportunity  they  afforded  in 
the  intimate  contact  with  this  great  master  of  science,  an  op- 
portunity that  has  not  been  possible  in  later  years. 

The  investigation  referred  to  above  was  a  digestion  experi- 
ment conducted  by  the  method  well  known  to  students  of 
agriculture  in  which  a  given  feedstuff  of  known  composition 
is  fed  to  an  animal  in  known  amount  and  the  amount  and  com- 
position of  the  excreta  are  determined,  and  from  these  data 
the  proportion  of  the  various  food  nutrients  retained  by  the 
animal  body  is  found  and  the  digestibility  of  the  feedstuff  in 
question  thus  determined. 

20 


EARLIER  YEARS 

It  is  quite  impossible  in  the  time  allotted  to  go  into  de- 
tails of  these  investigations,  but  one  point  in  passing  is  of 
interest  as  illustrating  the  truly  scientific  instinct  of  this  man 
as  an  investigator.  The  bulletin  reporting  the  above  experi- 
ment states  that  four  high-grade  steers  were  used,  altho,  it  is 
noted,  "usually  digestion  experiments  are  made  with  not  more 
than  two  animals  and  often  with  only  one."  Altho  the  error 
due  to  "individuality"  in  animals  in  this  sort  of  work  has  been 
well  recognized  in  these  later  years,  it  seems  not  to  have 
been  taken  into  account  in  those  days.  But  Doctor  Hopkins' 
keen  scientific  judgment,  which  seemed  with  him  to  be  an 
intuition,  did  not  allow  him  to  overlook  this  point.  This  was 
characteristic.  It  was  with  this  same  scientific  instinct  that 
he  fortified  all  his  work  against  critical  attack,  and  it  was  this 
same  characteristic  that  enabled  him  to  make  such  discrimina- 
tive analysis  of  the  data  of  others.  "Presumably  we  should 
accept  the  data  of  others,"  he  was  wont  to  say,  "but  we  are  in 
no  way  bound  to  accept  their  conclusions."  I  well  recall  some 
of  these  lessons  from  him  in  what  might  be  called  scientific 
judgment — how  he  used  to  point  out  the  absurdity  of  carefully 
carrying  out  figures  to  the  third  and  fourth  decimal  place  when 
perhaps  the  error  in  sampling  might  be  many  times  as  great 
as  the  difference  in  the  figures;  or  of  exercising  undue  pre- 
cision at  one  point  in  a  process  when  it  might  be  offset  many 
times  by  some  gross  error  at  another  point. 

The  next  work  of  Doctor  Hopkins  recorded  in  bulletin 
form  was  an  investigation  of  the  sugar  beet  in  Illinois,  a  work 
undertaken  jointly  with  Professor  Holden.  The  question  of 
the  production  of  sugar  in  this  country  thru  the  introduction 
of  the  beet  was  at  that  time  a  live  problem.  To  answer  the 
quesion  for  Illinois,  sugar-beet  seed  was  distributed  in  the 
spring  of  1897  to  all  sections  of  the  state  and  samples  from 
the  resulting  crop  were  returned  for  inspection.  The  results 
showed  that  sugar  beets  of  acceptable  quality  and  in  profitable 
quantity  can  be  grown  in  the  northern  and  central  portions  of 

21 


CYRIL  GEORGE  HOPKINS 

this  state.  The  problem  of  sugar-beet  production  in  Illinois 
was  thus  proven  to  be  of  an  industrial  nature  rather  than 
cultural. 

It  was  quite  natural  in  a  state  like  Illinois,  where  the  inter- 
est is  so  largely  centered  in  the  corn  crop,  that  the  chemist 
of  the  experiment  station  should  be  attracted  to  the  chemical 
problems  of  the  corn  plant,  and  so  we  find  Doctor  Hopkins 
soon  becoming  deeply  engrossed  in  the  chemistry  of  this  great 
crop. 

"The  Chemistry  of  the  Corn  Kernel"  was  the  title  of  the 
next  bulletin  of  Doctor  Hopkins  to  appear.  It  is  of  interest 
to  note  that  this  publication  served  as  the  thesis  for  his  doctor's 
degree  at  Cornell,  a  large  portion  of  the  work  being  done  in 
the  laboratories  of  that  institution.  This  investigation  went 
more  completely  into  the  chemistry  of  the  different  substances 
that  make  up  the  corn  kernel  than  had  any  work  hitherto  done. 
Aside  from  the  valuable  information  there  given,  our  present 
interest  in  this  work  lies  in  the  fact  that  it  served  as  the  basis 
of  that  great  research  which  has  come  to  be  regarded  as  a 
classic  in  plant  breeding,  namely,  the  breeding  of  corn  to 
influence  its  chemical  composition. 

This  breeding  work  grew  out  of  suggestions  made  in  con- 
ference with  Doctor  Burrill  and  Dean  Davenport.  Recogniz- 
ing the  fact  that  corn  is  put  to  such  a  great  variety  of  uses, 
it  was  proposed  to  investigate  the  possibility  of  modifying  the 
composition  of  the  grain  in  order  to  adapt  it  to  various  pur- 
poses, whether  for  feeding  or  for  manufacturing.  Accordingly, 
in  1896  a  common  variety  of  corn  was  taken  and  selection  of 
seed  was  made  in  four  directions ;  namely,  high  protein,  low 
protein,  high  oil,  and  low  oil.  Each  of  these  lots  of  seed  was 
planted  by  the  ear-to-the-row  method  in  an  isolated  breeding 
plot  in  order  that  it  might  not  become  mixed  with  other  kinds. 
At  harvest,  representative  samples  were  collected  and  analysed 
and  further  selection  made  along  the  respective  lines.  Repeat- 
ing this  process  year  after  year  resulted  in  the  gradual  develop- 

22 


EARLIER  YEARS 

ment  of  four  distinct  strains  of  corn  corresponding  to  the  selec- 
tion of  the  seed. 

Doctor  Hopkins  described  this  work  in  his  bulletin  entitled, 
"The  Improvement  in  the  Chemical  Composition  of  the  Corn 
Kernel,"  giving  the  results  of  the  first  two  generations,  which 
had  been  completed  at  that  time.  This  work  has  been  con- 
tinued up  to  the  present  time  so  that  now  there  are  unbroken 
pedigree  records  running  back  thru  twenty-three  consecutive 
generations,  thus  constituting  the  longest  continued  corn- 
breeding  experiments  in  existence.  The  progress  has  been 
such  that  it  may  be  stated  that  starting  with  a  single  ordinary 
variety  of  corn  in  1896,  it  has  been  possible,  thru  this  method 
of  selection  and  breeding,  to  produce  four  distinct  kinds  of  corn 
with  respect  to  composition,  so  that  now  one  strain  is  twice 
as  rich  in  protein  as  another,  and  another  strain  is  now  five 
times  as  rich  in  oil  as  its  corresponding  opposite. 

In  the  year  1900  Doctor  Hopkins  obtained  a  leave  of  ab- 
sence to  study  and  travel  in  Europe.  The  main  portion  of  this 
time  he  spent  at  the  University  of  Gottingen  with  the  re- 
nowned chemist  Tollens,  working  on  the  chemistry  of  the 
carbohydrates.  Upon  his  return  he  came  into  the  position  of 
Professor  of  Agronomy.  It  was  then  that  he  began  his  investi- 
gations in  soil  fertility,  and  as  he  became  more  and  more  en- 
grossed in  this  subject,  and  as  administrative  duties  connected 
with  affairs  of  a  growing  department  multiplied,  he  was 
obliged  to  gradually  relinquish  his  activities  in  these  other 
lines  of  which  I  have  attempted  to  speak. 

The  point  that  I  should  like  to  emphasize  in  this  brief  re- 
view is  the  substantial  character  of  the  research  work  of  this 
great  scientist.  Thoroness  and  accuracy  characterized  all  these 
investigations,  and  it  was  these  qualities  that  Doctor  Hopkins 
injected  into  his  subsequent  work  on  soils  and  that  have  made 
his  teachings  command  the  respect  and  confidence  of  scientists 
and  farmers  alike.  It  is  more  of  this  substantial  kind  of  in- 
vestigation that  agriculture  needs  for  its  future  development. 

23 


THE  SCIENTIFIC  BASIS  OF  THE  ILLINOIS 

SYSTEM  OF  PERMANENT  SOIL 

FERTILITY 

By  ROBERT  STEWART 
Chief  in  Soil  Fertility,  University  of  Illinois1 

O  IXTY  years  ago  Liebig,  the  father  of  agricultural  chem- 
0  istry,  made  the  following  statement:  "Agriculture  is,  of 
all  industrial  pursuits,  the  richest  in  facts,  and  the  poorest  in 
their  comprehension.  Facts  are  like  grains  of  sand  which  are 
moved  by  the  wind,  but  principles  are  these  same  grains  ce- 
mented into  rocks."  The  great  contribution  made  to  Ameri- 
can agriculture  by  the  late  Doctor  Hopkins  was  the  gathering 
together,  classifying,  interpreting,  and  unifying,  by  his  own 
investigations,  the  known  facts  of  agriculture  into  a  definite 
whole  as  practiced  and  taught  by  him  in  a  system  of  perma- 
nent soil  fertility. 

Many  of  the  facts  upon  which  the  Illinois  system  is  based 
have  been  known  for  many  years  and  even  centuries,  and  have 
been  developed  by  other  men  in  other  institutions  and  in  other 
times.  It  remained,  however,  for  Doctor  Hopkins  to  bring 
together  and  to  unify  these  isolated  facts  into  a  definite  work- 
able system,  the  keynote  of  which  is  permanency,  and  by  his 
own  investigations  to  demonstrate  clearly  that  the  system 
could  be  understood  and  used  by  the  average  farmer  on  his 
own  farm,  with  profitable  results.  In  his  interpretation  of  the 
facts  upon  which  this  system  is  based  all  men  have  not  agreed, 
and  some  even  still  do  not  agree  with  him.  But  the  system 
rests  on  the  sure  foundation  of  facts  supported  by  an  abun- 
dance of  experimental  data  now  available  from  the  fields  and 
laboratories  of  the  University  of  Illinois  operated  under  his 
direction. 


Dean  of  the  College  of  Agriculture,  University  of  Nevada. 
24 


PERMANENT  SOIL  FERTILITY 

The  Illinois  system  of  permanent  soil  fertility  recognizes 
six  positive  factors  of  crop  production.  These  may  be  desig- 
nated briefly  as  seed,  temperature,  moisture,  light,  a  home  for 
the  plant,  and  food  for  its  use.  No  one  of  these  factors  is  more 
essential  than  another  in  the  production  of  crops,  but  since 
they  are  not  equally  susceptible  of  control  certain  of  them  are 
more  often  the  limiting  factors.  It  is  impossible,  for  example, 
to  change  the  temperature  conditions  of  winter  so  as  to  make 
that  season  suitable  for  crop  production,  and  the  practical 
means  available  for  modifying  the  temperature  conditions  of 
the  soil  during  the  growing  period  of  the  crop  are  very  lim- 
ited. Of  all  six  factors  that  of  plant  food  is  the  most  com- 
pletely within  the  control  of  the  farmer,  for  it  is  fully  pos- 
sible for  him  to  completely  change  in  an  economic  way  the 
amount  of  food  available  within  the  soil  for  the  plant.  Yet 
it  is  frequently  true  that  the  food  supply  of  the  soil  is  the 
limiting  factor  of  crop  production,  especially  under  humid  con- 
ditions such  as  prevail  in  Illinois.  It  is  therefore  to  this  factor 
that  Doctor  Hopkins  has  given  large  consideration  in  develop- 
ing a  system  of  permanent  soil  fertility. 

There  are  ten  essential  elements  of  plant  food  in  the  ab- 
sence of  any  one  of  which  the  plant  cannot  function  normally 
and  produce  good  yields.  These  elements  are :  carbon,  oxy- 
gen, hydrogen,  iron,  sulfur,  calcium,  magnesium,  potassium, 
nitrogen,  and  phosphorus.  The  great  bulk  of  the  plant — ap- 
proximately 96  percent — consists  of  three  elements,  carbon, 
oxygen,  and  hydrogen.  The  supply  of  these  elements,  how- 
ever, as  Doctor  Hopkins  pointed  out,  is  automatically  taken 
care  of  by  nature,  the  carbon  and  oxygen  being  obtained  by 
the  plant  directly  from  the  carbon  dioxid  of  the  atmosphere 
and  the  hydrogen  obtained  from  the  soil  moisture,  which  in 
turn  is,  under  humid  conditions,  constantly  being  replenished 
by  the  rainfall.  The  farmer,  therefore,  need  not  concern  him- 
self with  these  three  elements. 


CYRIL  GEORGE  HOPKINS 

Iron  is  used  by  the  plant  in  such  extremely  minute  quanti- 
ties, and  the  supply  in  the  soil  is  so  large,  that  it  need  never 
be  added  to  the  soil  as  a  plant  food.  While  the  plant  require- 
ments for  sulfur  are  rather  large  and  the  supply  in  the  soil 
comparatively  small,  the  amount  added  to  the  soil  by  rainfall 
is  adequate,  not  only  to  meet  the  needs  of  the  plant  but  also 
to  offset  the  loss  in  the  soil  thru  drainage. 

There  remain,  then,  as  Doctor  Hopkins  stated,  five  elements 
of  plant  food  which  must  receive  careful  consideration  by  the 
farmer  in  the  construction  of  any  system  of  permanent  soil 
fertility  that  may  be  proposed.  These  are  calcium,  magnesium, 
potassium,  phosphorus,  and  nitrogen.  Since  there  is  no  nat- 
ural provision  for  the  restoration  of  these  elements  to  the 
soil  when  once  removed  by  crops,  a  system  which  assumes 
to  be  permanent  must  provide  for  their  return,  unless  as  some- 
times happens,  they  are  present  in  the  soil  in  unusual  quanti- 
ties sufficient  to  provide  for  the  maximum  production  of  crops 
for  indefinite  periods  of  time. 

The  inorganic  plant  foods — calcium,  magnesium,  potas- 
sium, and  phosphorus — are  removed  by  the  plants  in  compara- 
tively large  quantities.  Chemical  analyses  have  shown  that 
an  ordinary  rotation  of  wheat,  corn,  oats,  and  clover  removes, 
per  acre,  in  the  maximum  production  of  crops,  77  pounds  of 
phosphorus,  320  pounds  of  potassium,  68  pounds  of  mag- 
nesium, and  168  pounds  of  calcium.  Since  these  elements  are 
obtained  by  the  plant  entirely  from  the  soil,  Doctor  Hopkins 
recognized  the  fundamental  importance  of  knowing  the 
amounts  of  these  materials  which  occur  in  the  soil  and  of  deter- 
mining their  relation  to  the  requirements  of  crops. 

Various  chemical  methods  have  been  proposed  from  time 
to  time  for  analyzing  the  soil.  Most  of  these  have  been  based 
upon  the  fantastic  claim  that  they  determine  the  available 
plant  food  in  the  soil.  Doctor  Hopkins,  however,  early  real- 
ized the  futility  of  such  a  claim,  and  concerned  himself  only 
with  the  determination  of  the  total  amount  of  plant  food  in 

26 


PERMANENT  SOIL  FERTILITY 

the  soil.  He  used  chemical  analysis  as  a  means  of  taking  in- 
voice, as  he  was  wont  to  say,  of  these  substances  within  the 
soil  just  as  the  merchant  takes  an  invoice  of  the  goods  upon 
his  shelves.  Whether  or  not  the  proper  use  is  made  of  this 
plant  food  depends  largely  upon  the  kind  of  farming  the 
farmer  carries  on,  just  as  it  depends  upon  the  business  ability 
of  the  merchant  whether  or  not  his  business  is  successful. 
Again  and  again  Doctor  Hopkins  urged  that  an  accurate  in- 
voice of  stock  with  which  to  work  is  as  absolute  a  necessity 
for  the  farmer  as  it  is  for  the  merchant. 

The  chemical  analysis  of  the  soils  of  Illinois  made  with 
this  idea  in  mind  at  once  showed  a  marked  variation  in  the 
amount  of  the  various  essential  plant  foods  present  in  the  soil. 
Phosphorus,  for  instance,  as  measured  in  a  typical  area  of 
brown  silt  loam  in  the  corn  belt  was  found  to  be  the  most 
limited  element,  not  only  as  measured  by  the  absolute  amounts 
present  but  also  as  measured  by  crop  requirements.  While 
the  supply  of  calcium  present  was  found  to  be  sufficient,  as 
Doctor  Hopkins  expressed  it,  for  the  production  of  a  100- 
bushel  crop  of  corn  annually  for  ninety  centuries,  the  supply 
of  magnesium  sufficient  for  thirteen  centuries,  and  the  supply 
of  potassium  sufficient  for  eighteen  centuries,  the  supply  of 
phosphorus  was  found  to  be  sufficient  for  only  sixty-two  years. 
Such  illustrations  are  very  significant  in  their  emphasis  of 
the  importance  of  providing  for  prosphorus  in  a  system  that  is 
to  insure  permanent  and  maximum  crop  production. 

The  problem  connected  with  the  fifth  element,  nitrogen,  is, 
in  the  words  of  Doctor  Hopkins,  "the  most  important  prac- 
tical problem  confronting  the  American  farmer."  Nitrogen  is 
required  by  crops  in  large  quantities,  while  the  supply  in  the 
soil  is  markedly  limited,  and  this  element,  if  purchased  on  the 
markets  of  the  world,  is  the  highest  priced  of  all  the  plant- 
food  materials.  A  hundred  pounds  of  nitrogen  is  required 
for  every  100  bushels  of  corn,  and  nitrogen  at  present  sells  for 
thirty  cents  a  pound.  At  such  a  prohibitive  price  the  farmer 

27 


CYRIL  GEORGE  HOPKINS 

cannot  afford  to  purchase  commercial  nitrogen  for  the  pro- 
duction of  his  common  farm  crops.  Doctor  Hopkins  therefore 
taught  the  necessity  of  depending  upon  legume  nitrogen,  which 
is  obtained  by  clovers,  alfalfa,  soybeans,  etc.,  by  the  aid  of 
symbiotic  bacteria  from  the  inexhaustible  supply  in  the  air, 
provided  the  soil  conditions  are  favorable  to  their  growth  and 
development.  In  the  Illinois  system  of  permanent  soil  fer- 
tility he  provided  not  only  that  a  legume  occur  in  each  rota- 
tion but  that  the  legume  hay  or  chaff  produced  be  carefully 
conserved  and  returned  to  the  soil,  either  as  farm  manure  or 
green  manure  crops.  Further,  he  urged  that  the  utmost  use 
be  made  of  legume  cover  crops  grown  in  connection  with  the 
production  of  wheat  and  other  cereals. 

In  the  development  of  this  use  of  legume  cover  crops  the 
research  work  of  Doctor  Hopkins  is  particularly  outstanding. 
Sweet  clover  was  a  favorite  crop  with  him  for  this  purpose  and 
he  was  among  the  first  to  call  attention  to  its  great  possibilities. 

Unfortunately,  legumes,  so  essential  for  soil  improvement, 
cannot  be  successfully  grown  on  many  soils  in  Illinois,  as  they 
now  exist,  because  of  their  acid  condition,  the  acidity  fre- 
quently being  so  great  as  to  prevent  absolutely  the  growth 
of  legumes.  Limestone  is  of  fundamental  importance  in  soil 
fertility.  That  a  limestone  soil  is  a  rich  soil  is  an  age-old 
truth.  Thruout  the  world  soils  that  have  become  famous  for 
their  persistent  fertility  are  limestone  soils.  This  is  true  of 
the  soils  of  the  far  western  United  States,  of  the  blue-grass 
regions  of  Kentucky,  of  the  valley  of  the  Nile,  and  of  the 
black  soils  of  India  and  Russia.  Unfortunately,  limestone  is 
of  all  soil  constituents  probably  the  most  readily  lost  in  drain- 
age water,  and  hence  humid  soils  are  as  a  rule  deficient  in 
this  essential  constituent.  The  first  principle  of  soil  fertility 
is  that  limestone  must  be  added  to  those  soils  in  which  it  is 
not  already  present.  While  the  limestone  is  added  primarily 
for  the  purpose  of  creating  conditions  favorable  to  the  growth 
of  the  necessary  legume  crops,  it  also  has  markedly  favorable 

28 


PERMANENT  SOIL  FERTILITY 

action  in  increasing  the  yields  of  the  cereal  crops  in  the  rota- 
tion. In  addition  to  overcoming  the  acidity  of  the  soil,  lime- 
stone provides  the  necessary  calcium  and  magnesium  as  plant 
foods. 

Various  forms  and  kinds  of  limestone  materials  are  avail- 
able, but  the  work  of  Doctor  Hopkins  has  clearly  demonstrated 
that  the  most  economic  form  to  use  is  the  finely  ground  nat- 
ural limestone — the  natural  material  occurring  in  the  soil.  The 
abundance  of  data  obtained  by  him  from  various  experimental 
fields,  particularly  in  southern  Illinois,  provides  the  best  infor- 
mation the  world  now  affords  regarding  the  great  benefit  from 
the  use  of  limestone  for  the  production  of  common  farm  crops. 

In  most  normal  soils,  such  as  the  brown  silt  loam  of  the 
corn  belt,  potassium  occurs  in  such  large  quantities  that  it  will 
be  sufficient  for  the  maximum  production  of  crops  for  indefi- 
nite periods  of  time.  Hence  in  the  case  of  potassium  Doctor 
Hopkins  has  pointed  out  that  the  problem  of  the  farmer  is  not 
one  of  addition,  but  rather  of  the  liberation  of  this  element 
from  the  insoluble  compounds  contained  in  the  soil.  In  both 
the  live-stock  and  the  grain  systems  of  farming,  his  provision 
for  the  turning  under  of  freshly  decomposing  organic  matter 
insures,  in  normal  soils,  a  sufficient  amount  of  available  potas- 
sium to  meet  the  requirements  of  crops  for  this  element.  The 
results  obtained  from  various  experimental  fields  have  shown 
clearly  that  when  used  on  such  soils  potassium  not  only  does 
not  pay  for  itself  but  gives  little  actual  increased  yield. 

Certain  abnormal  types  of  soil,  however,  are  deficient  in 
potassium.  Such  soils  are  peaty  soils  and  soils  deficient  in 
organic  matter.  On  peaty  soils,  potassium  is  the  limiting  ele- 
ment of  plant  food  and  is  often  the  limiting  factor  of  crop 
production.  The  addition  of  potassium,  therefore,  on  such 
soils  is  an  absolute  necessity.  On  soils  deficient  in  organic 
matter,  such  as  many  of  those  occurring  in  southern  Illinois, 
potassium  may  be  used  with  profitable  results  until  the  soil 
has  been  built  up  in  its  organic-matter  content. 

29 


CYRIL  GEORGE  HOPKINS 

On  normal  soils  phosphorus  is  frequently  the  limiting  ele- 
ment of  crop  production.  Various  forms  of  phosphorus  are 
available  for  supplying  this  deficiency,  such  as  barnyard  ma- 
nure, steamed  bone  meal,  basic  slag,  acid  phosphate,  and  raw 
rock  phosphate.  In  the  Illinois  system  of  permanent  soil  fer- 
tility, Doctor  Hopkins  provided  for  the  abundant  use  of  finely 
ground  rock  phosphate,  since  a  wealth  of  experimental  data 
from  the  fields  maintained  by  the  University  has  proved  con- 
clusively that,  except  under  special  conditions,  this  form  may 
be  used  with  considerable  profit  and  with  much  less  expense 
than  the  other  forms,  altho  there  may  be  special  conditions 
under  which  some  of  the  other  forms  are  desirable. 

There  are  two  well  defined  types  of  farming  occurring  in 
Illinois,  the  grain  system  and  the  live-stock  system.  Both  of 
these  are  perfectly  legitimate,  proper,  and  profitable  systems 
of  farming.  Both  of  these  types,  moreover,  are  absolutely 
essential  to  the  development  of  the  highest  stage  of  civiliza- 
tion ;  as  long  as  man  demands  bread,  butter,  meat,  and  milk, 
and  until  we  are  willing  that  our  standards  of  living  should 
be  lowered,  both  types  must  exist.  Doctor  Hopkins  recog- 
nized this  fact,  and  in  the  Illinois  system  of  permanent  soil 
fertility  made  provision  for  the  maintenance  of  fertility  on  a 
permanent  and  profitable  basis  on  both  the  live-stock  and  the 
grain  farm.  In  either  type  of  farming,  limestone  and  phos- 
phates must  be  used  in  order  that  the  growth  of  legumes,  so 
essential  both  in  soil  improvement  and  in  the  feeding  of  live 
stock,  may  be  made  possible. 

While  Doctor  Hopkins  took  particular  pains  to  point  out 
and  emphasize  the  possibility  of  maintaining  the  fertility  of 
the  soil  on  the  grain  farm  on  a  permanent  and  profitable  basis, 
he  also  made  important  contributions  to  our  knowledge  re- 
garding methods  of  maintaining  the  fertility  of  the  live-stock 
farm.  His  teachings  in  this  respect  are  of  tremendous  im- 
portance since  they  provide  for  the  extension  of  live-stock 
farming  to  large  areas  where  heretofore  the  proper  feeds  could 

30 


PERMANENT  SOIL  FERTILITY 

not  be  produced.  On  all  the  experimental  fields  of  the  Uni- 
versity just  one-half  of  the  work  is  devoted  to  the  maintenance 
of  soil  fertility  in  live-stock  farming.  The  live-stock  farmers 
of  Illinois  should  have  a  deep  sense  of  gratitude  to  Doctor 
Hopkins  for  his  work  in  their  behalf. 

If  a  system  is  to  be  permanent,  the  materials  removed  from 
the  soil  must  be  returned  at  least  in  the  proportion  in  which 
they  are  removed  by  natural  processes,  including  the  amount 
removed  by  the  crop  and  the  amount  lost  in  the  drainage 
water.  This  would  seem  to  be  such  a  simple  axiomatic  truth 
that  it  need  not  be  dwelt  on  ;  however,  it  is  a  point  which  must 
be  constantly  emphasized.  For  years  Doctor  Hopkins  has 
protested  against  the  use  of  the  complete  commercial  fertilizer 
to  supply  soil  deficiencies.  He  pointed  out  that  the  use  of 
two  or  three  hundred  pounds  of  an  ordinary  commercial  fer- 
tilizer of  a  2-10-2  grade,  which  adds  only  five  or  six  pounds 
of  nitrogen,  could  act  only  as  a  soil  stimulant ;  for,  if  increased 
crops  are  obtained  by  its  use,  they  can  be  had  only  at  the  ex- 
pense of  the  nitrogen  already  in  the  soil,  since  the  requirement 
for  a  100-bushel  crop  of  corn  is  100  pounds  of  nitrogen.  The 
Illinois  system  of  permanent  soil  fertility,  therefore,  condemns 
in  unmeasured  terms  the  use  of  such  soil  stimulants,  among 
which  must  be  classified  ordinary  commercial  fertilizers  and 
gypsum. 

In  the  briefest  way  possible,  the  very  essential  points  un- 
derlying the  Illinois  system  of  permanent  soil  fertility  as 
worked  out  by  Doctor  Hopkins  have  thus  been  merely  touched 
upon.  But  it  is  the  desire  at  this  point  to  emphasize  the  fact 
which  Doctor  Hopkins  reiterated  that  the  Illinois  system  of 
permanent  soil  fertility  rests  upon  a  sane  and  safe  scientific 
basis,  and,  because  it  makes  abundant  use  of  cheap,  natural, 
raw  products,  such  as  legume  nitrogen  and  finely  ground  lime- 
stone and  rock  phosphate,  it  is  both  a  permanent  and  profitable 
system  of  soil  fertility.  This  is  the  heritage  to  the  Illinois 
farmers  left  by  him  in  whose  memory  we  have  met  to-day. 


THE  PRACTICAL  SIGNIFICANCE  OF  THE 

ILLINOIS  SYSTEM  OF  PERMANENT 

AGRICULTURE 

By  EALPH  ALLEN 
Member  of  the  University  Soil  Advisory  Committee 

TO  help  us  realize  the  magnitude  of  Doctor  Hopkins'  work 
in  investigation,  let  us  make  a  little  comparison.  Before 
his  time  the  great  source  of  agricultural  knowledge  was  at 
Rothamsted ;  and  when  we  consider  that  here  the  soil  investi- 
gation was  virtually  confined  to  one  farm  of  less  than  sixty 
acres,  that  before  this  time  investigations  had  been  practically 
limited  to  two  or  three  men,  that  the  Rothamsted  investigation 
was  in  one  place  and  in  one  climate,  and  yet  produced  results 
which  changed  agricultural  thought  and  agricultural  advance- 
ment; and  then  when  we  consider  the  scope  of  Doctor  Hop- 
kins' researches,  that  they  involved  not  the  soils  of  a  farm  but 
of  a  great  state,  of  a  varied  climate,  that  they  included  the 
soils  of  almost  the  extremes  in  type,  from  sand  to  peat  and 
from  the  rich,  black  soils  found  in  the  corn  belt  of  this  state 
to  the  other  extreme  of  what  are  known  as  the  post-oak  soils 
of  the  south  almost  devoid  of  fertility,  that  his  researches  cov- 
ered the  physical  as  well  as  the  chemical  and  even  the  biolog- 
ical phases  of  the  soil,  that  his  fields  of  investigation  were 
located  on  lands  so  eroded  that  they  were  practically  aban- 
doned for  agriculture,  that  they  involved  soils  which  were 
almost  impossible  of  drainage,  and  from  those  extremes  to  the 
very  best  land  of  Illinois — then  we  find  the  great  range  of  the 
research  within  which  Doctor  Hopkins'  fields  brought  him. 

Doctor  Hopkins  not  only  covered  this  wide  field,  but  he 
undertook  what  no  other  man  had  attempted — he  undertook 
to  show  the  farmer  how  he  could  make  practical  use  of  all 
that  had  been  learned  from  the  study  of  soils.  He  taught 
him  the  various  elements  of  fertility  of  the  soil  and  how  some 
of  them  are  found  in  the  air,  and  some  in  the  soil  upon  his 

32 


PERMANENT  SOIL  FERTILITY 

own  farm,  and  others  at  remote  places;  and  he  showed  the 
farmer  how  these  could  be  brought  together  and  utilized  for 
the  increase  of  crops.  He  instituted  a  system  of  chemical 
analysis  of  soils  which  made  it  possible  for  every  farmer  in 
the  state  to  know  the  chemical  analysis  of  the  soils  on  his 
farm,  even  tho  his  farm  might  contain  as  many  as  three  or 
four  different  kinds  of  soil;  and  having  this  knowledge,  he 
could  then  restore  the  lacking  elements  of  fertility. 

Doctor  Hopkins  went  further  than  this.  He  established 
in  Illinois  a  series  of  experiment  fields  for  the  purpose  of  in- 
vestigating the  problems  of  soil  fertility.  These  fields  were 
not  only  a  means  of  investigation  but  they  served  also  as  a 
means  of  demonstration  to  the  farmers  of  the  state.  They 
were  located  on  every  large  type  of  soil  in  Illinois — on  the 
sandy  soils,  on  the  peaty  soils,  on  black  clay  loam,  and  in  fact 
on  every  kind  of  soil  found  in  any  large  area  in  this  state. 

The  experiments  carried  out  in  these  fields  have  proven 
different  things.  They  have  proven  the  possibility  of  perma- 
nent agriculture.  They  have  proven  that  land  which  is  not 
treated — not  rationally  treated — and  which  is  cropped  year 
after  year,  gradually  grows  poorer  and  poorer  the  longer  it  is 
farmed.  On  the  other  hand,  these  fields  have  proven  that  these 
lands,  when  properly  treated  by  the  addition  of  the  elements 
of  fertility  which  are  not  supplied  in  any  other  way  except 
by  the  effort  of  man,  gradually  grow  more  and  more  fertile 
with  each  rotation  the  longer  the  system  of  soil  feeding  is 
continued.  I  have  visited  these  fields  at  the  beginning  of  the 
undertaking,  and  in  some  of  them  it  seemed  almost  hopeless 
that  profitable  crops  could  be  raised ;  and  then  with  the  next 
rotation  of  crops  I  would  see  an  improvement  in  those  parts 
of  the  fields  properly  treated;  and  with  succeeding  rotations 
I  would  see  them  becoming  still  better  until  they  were  large- 
yielding  and  profitable  fields. 

Another  thing  these  fields  have  shown  is  that  a  rational 
soil  treatment  is  a  sort  of  insurance  of  crops;  that  is,  they 

33 


CYRIL  GEORGE  HOPKINS 

have  shown  that  in  bad  seasons  a  crop  may  be  grown  on  a 
well  treated  field,  whereas  on  a  poorly  treated  or  untreated 
field  no  crop,  or  at  most  a  very  poor  crop,  will  be  grown.  It 
seems  almost  incredible  that  soil  treatment  could  act  as  an 
insurance  against  insects,  drouth,  and  even  against  storms; 
and  yet  I  have  seen  fields  in  which  the  untreated  parts  were 
so  infested  with  insects  that  the  normal  yield  was  practically 
cut  in  two,  whereas  on  the  treated  fields — the  properly  treated 
fields — a  normal  crop  was  produced.  On  fields  on  which  there 
had  been  almost  no  rainfall  I  have  seen  the  crop  entirely  dead 
on  those  parts  of  the  field  which  had  had  no  soil  treatment, 
whereas  on  those  parts  of  the  field  which  had  received  a 
rational  soil  treatment  the  crop  was  not  only  living  but  was 
producing  a  good  yield.  And  following  the  hard  wind  and 
rain  storms  we  have  in  Illinois  which  beat  the  crops  flat  to 
the  ground,  I  have  seen  the  crops  on  those  parts  of  the  fields 
which  received  no  treatment  so  flattened  down  that  they  could 
never  rise,  while  on  those  parts  of  the  field  which  were  re- 
ceiving treatment  the  crops,  while  somewhat  beaten  down, 
straightened  up  and  made  a  good  yield.  I  have  seen  these 
things. 

One  other  line  of  activity  was  taken  up  by  Doctor  Hopkins 
in  his  soil  investigations,  and  that  was  the  soil  survey  of  Illi- 
nois. Among  the  first  questions  which  arose  when  the  soil 
investigations  were  begun  were:  What  are  the  soils  of  Illi- 
nois? What  are  the  different  kinds  that  are  found  here? 
Where  are  the  different  kinds  found,  and  what  makes  the  dif- 
ference between  one  kind  and  another?  In  order  to  answer 
these  questions  the  soil  survey  of  the  state  was  begun.  County 
by  county  the  soils  have  been  analyzed,  the  various  types  lo- 
cated, and  their  boundaries  definitely  defined,  and  in  the  re- 
ports of  this  survey  is  the  key  to  the  farmer  to  all  the  in- 
formation obtained  by  Doctor  Hopkins  in  his  investigations. 
Soil  maps  have  been  made  which  are  so  accurate  that,  know- 
ing the  range,  the  section,  and  the  fraction  of  the  section 

34 


which  describes  his  farm,  the  farmer  can  refer  to  the  map  of 
his  county  and  learn  the  types  of  soil  on  his  farm  and  their 
exact  boundaries.  In  fact,  these  maps  are  so  accurate  that  one 
had  better  trust  them  than  his  own  judgment  in  the  purchase 
of  a  farm.  I  know  I  would  a  great  deal  rather.  In  these  re- 
ports he  will  find  the  chemical  composition  of  his  soils — of 
the  surface  soil,  of  the  subsurface,  and  even  of  the  subsoil. 
Not  only  that,  he  can  learn  the  treatment  which  these  differ- 
ent kinds  of  soil  require  for  the  maximum  production  of  crops. 
I  might  say  that  before  the  soil  survey  was  begun,  before  the 
farmers  knew  how  to  distinguish  between  the  soil  of  one  farm 
and  that  of  another,  there  was  great  confusion.  For  instance, 
if  a  farmer  was  recommended  to  put  potassium  on  his  land 
he  might  do  so  and  get  immediate  results,  a  thing  which  has 
been  done,  but  that  fact  would  be  published  far  and  wide — 
not  the  fact  that  potassium  should  be  put  on  peat  land  but 
that  potassium  was  a  good  fertilizer.  Then  one  hundred  others 
would  apply  potassium  and  get  no  result.  But  now  if  a 
farmer  has  peaty  land  he  knows  what  to  apply  to  get  results 
in  increased  yields  but  he  does  not  apply  potassium  to  sandy 
or  clay  land.  He  knows  enough  to  distinguish  between  the 
one  and  the  other. 

The  best  part  of  all  this  soil  investigation  is  this :  that  as 
a  result  of  it  the  farmers  themselves  are  putting  into  practice 
the  very  things  that  Doctor  Hopkins  has  recommended,  and 
are  getting  identically  the  same  results  that  he  got  on  the  ex- 
perimental fields.  What  does  this  mean?  The  flight  of 
imagination  cannot  express  what  it  means.  It  means,  in  a 
word,  increased  crops  to  the  farmer,  but  that  is  not  all.  It 
means  more  food  for  those  who  are  not  farmers.  Every  ex- 
cess bushel  of  wheat  that  is  produced  by  you  on  your  farm 
means  the  pushing  back  farther  and  farther  of  the  famine  area. 

So  firm  was  Doctor  Hopkins  in  his  conviction  that  the 
poorest  land  could  be  made  to  yield  large  and  profitable  crops 
that  he  hunted  out  the  most  barren  piece  of  land  in  the  state 

35 


CYRIL  GEORGE  HOPKINS 

that  he  could  find — a  farm  in  southern  Illinois  which  had  been 
abandoned  for  five  years — purchased  it,  and  named  it  "Poor- 
land  Farm."  I  discussed  with  him  at  the  time  the  profitable- 
ness of  the  venture,  arguing  that  he  would  make  a  good  deal 
more  money  if  he  would  buy  a  farm  in  central  Illinois,  but 
he  had  a  different  idea.  He  asserted  that  he  would  make  that 
farm  produce  yields  equal  to  those  of  the  corn  belt.  This 
was  a  great  boast  to  make  for  southern  Illinois  lands,  but  he 
made  it  good.  Ten  years  later  he  had  produced  thirty-five 
bushels  of  wheat  to  the  acre  and  it  was  then  that  he  wrote 
that  great  circular  "Bread  from  Stones."  It  was  literally  true 
that  he  had  grown  bread  from  stones,  for  it  was  a  yield  which 
was  due  alone  to  the  application  of  the  raw  rock  phosphate 
of  Tennessee  and  the  limestone  of  Illinois.  Since  then  these 
yields  have  been  surpassed  by  those  of  which  any  corn-belt 
farmer  would  be  proud.  But  it  is  not  just  what  Doctor  Hop- 
kins has  done  on  this  one  farm  that  is  of  so  much  value,  but 
rather  the  possibilities  it  has  shown  to  the  many.  By  fol- 
lowing the  practices  put  into  effect  on  Poorland  Farm,  any 
other  man  on  the  same  kind  of  land  can  secure  the  same  re- 
sults. I  know  of  one  man  in  southern  Illinois  who  has  put 
the  teachings  of  Doctor  Hopkins  into  practice  and  has  got 
over  fifty  bushels  of  wheat  to  the  acre,  a  yield  which  would 
be  a  credit  to  any  farmer  in  Illinois. 

When  I  speak  of  these  things — of  what  Doctor  Hopkins 
has  done  and  the  farmers  who  have  practiced  his  teachings 
have  done — you  can  begin  to  see  the  possibilities  and  signifi- 
cance of  his  work.  I  have  become  convinced  that  there  is  not 
a  foot  of  the  ground  in  Illinois  or  perhaps  anywhere  else  but 
that  could  be  made  to  produce  the  very  largest  crops  and  made 
to  produce  them  profitably  to  the  farmer.  As  I  think  of  these 
possibilities,  it  seems  to  me  that  the  only  limit  to  food  pro- 
duction and  the  human  life  resulting  from  food  production  is 
simply  this — the  limits  of  human  knowledge  and  human  labor, 
and  to  both  of  these  how  largely  has  our  Doctor  Hopkins 
contributed. 

36 


DOCTOR  HOPKINS,  THE  TRUE  TEACHER  OF 
THE  SCIENCE  OF  AGRICULTURE 

By  BEOTHEE  LEO 
Superintendent  of  the  Farm,  University  of  Notre  Dame 

WE,  the  farmers  of  the  middle  western  states  are  in  deep 
mourning.  In  the  death  of  Doctor  Cyril  G.  Hopkins  we 
have  lost  our  greatest  agricultural  teacher  and  scientist.  A 
great  servant  of  the  people  has  passed  away.  A  man  with  a 
noble  soul,  a  broad  mind,  wholly  unselfish,  a  true  friend  of  the 
farmers,  and  a  deep  thinker,  he  fearlessly  spoke  the  truth  in 
defiance  of  opposition.  As  he  once  said,  "You  may  trample 
the  truth  into  the  earth  but  it  will  rise  again." 

I  knew  Doctor  Hopkins  personally ;  the  news  of  his  death 
is  grief  to  me.  I  was  the  recipient  of  his  valuable  knowledge 
relative  to  building  up  depleted  lands. 

It  has  been  said  that  from  a  productive  standpoint  some 
men  are  too  scientific  to  be  practical.  This  was  not  true  of 
Doctor  Hopkins.  While  he  was  deeply  scientific,  his  scientific 
knowledge  was  applicable  to  all.  His  profound  simplicity 
coupled  with  accuracy  was  one  of  his  many  outstanding  vir- 
tues. A  self-sacrificing,  untiring  worker,  he  labored  to  the 
very  end.  The  state  of  Illinois,  and  other  states  as  well,  have 
been  made  richer  in  agricultural  knowledge  brought  about  by 
the  persistent  experiments  and  study  of  Doctor  Hopkins. 

While  Illinois  had  the  first  right  to  the  use  of  the  services 
of  Doctor  Hopkins,  Indiana  has  also  come  in  for  her  fair  share 
of  the  fruits  of  the  practical  and  workable  facts  pertaining 
to  soil  fertility  and  crop  production,  first  promulgated  by  him. 

Doctor  Hopkins'  life  work  is  ended.  We  bow  our  heads  in 
humble  submission  to  the  providential  decree  of  God  who  has 
called  from  this  life  a  humble  servant  of  the  people.  May  his 
soul  rest  in  peace. 

37 


THE  CULMINATING  YEAR  IN  THE  LIFE  OF 
DOCTOR  HOPKINS 

By  GEORGE  BOUYOUCO8 

Michigan  Agricultural  College.     Captain  in  American  Bed  Cross 
Commission  to  Greece 

ON  September  20,  1918,  I  received  a  letter  from  the  one 
whom  we  commemorate  today,  informing  me  that  he  had 
accepted  a  call  to  go  to  Greece  to  help  rejuvenate  the  agricul- 
ture of  that  country  and  asking  me  if  I  would  join  him.  You 
can  all  imagine,  of  course,  what  my  answer  was.  A  few  days 
later  I  received  a  telegram  requesting  me  to  prepare  to  meet 
him  in  Chicago  after  two  days.  When  I  met  him  in  Chicago 
I  found  him  very  serious  but  full  of  joy  and  enthusiasm,  the 
reasons  for  which  he  soon  confided  to  me.  They  were  two: 
first,  that  he  had  an  opportunity  to  take  a  more  active  and 
direct  part  in  helping  win  the  war;  and  second,  that  he  was 
going  to  study  the  soils  of  that  old  country  which  have  been 
farmed  for  thousands  of  years,  to  ascertain  in  what  condition 
they  were  and  to  see  what  he  could  do  to  make  them  produce 
more  quickly  and  permanently. 

Doctor  Hopkins  immediately  applied  himself  to  learning 
the  Greek  language  with  a  rare  enthusiasm  and  great  intensity, 
and  by  the  time  we  arrived  in  Greece  he  had  already  made 
notable  progress  in  it. 

On  our  arrival  in  Greece  he  entered  upon  his  work  at  once 
with  a  boundless  enthusiasm  and  interest,  passionate  devotion, 
intense  concentration,  and  ceaseless  labor. 

His  greatness  as  a  scientist,  his  love  for  the  truth,  his  con- 
scienciousness  and  practicability  are  further  revealed  by  the 
plan  he  followed  in  performing  his  monumental  work  in 
Greece.  He  absolutely  refused  to  give  advice  or  to  make  rec- 
ommendations regarding  the  soils  of  Greece  until  he  had  made 
a  thoro  and  scientific  investigation  of  them.  Accordingly,  he 
instituted  as  thoro  and  extensive  scientific  study  of  the  soils  of 

38 


THE  CULMINATING  YEAR 

the  country  as  the  time  at  his  disposal  permitted.  He  applied 
four  different  methods  in  examining  the  soils  of  the  country: 
(1)  personal  examination,  (2)  chemical  analysis,  (3)  pot- 
culture  experiments,  and  (4)  field  experiments.  He  visited 
and  examined  personally  all  the  most  important  soil  areas  in 
Greece,  collected  over  three  thousand  single  soil  samples, 
which  were  combined  into  about  one  hundred  composite  sam- 
ples and  were  analyzed  chemically,  and  he  conducted  many 
series  of  pot-culture  experiments  and  several  field  experiments 
in  different  parts  of  the  country.  After  he  had  obtained  scien- 
tific results  from  these  various  studies  and  had  acquired  a 
practical  knowledge  of  the  agricultural  conditions  of  the  coun- 
try he  wrote  a  little  book  containing  advice  to  the  farmers  and 
giving  recommendations  to  the  Government.  This  book  was 
sent  free  to  nearly  all  the  farmers  in  Greece.  Almost  two  hun- 
dred thousand  copies  were  printed  and  distributed. 

He  outlined  to  the  farmers  systems  of  agriculture  by  which 
their  land  could  be  made  to  produce  infinitely  more  and  per- 
manently and  at  the  same  time  permanently  retain  its  fertility. 
He  recommended  to  the  Government  educational  systems  of 
agriculture  and  ways  in  which  it  could  render  direct  and 
immediate  help  to  the  farmers.  This  report  is  a  masterpiece. 
He  poured  into  it  the  cream  of  his  wonderful  knowledge  and 
rich  experience.  It  is  his  culminating  work  and  will  always 
stand  as  one  of  the  greatest  monuments  to  him. 

He  did  all  this  tremendous  amount  of  work  in  the  short 
space  of  ten  months.  It  was  a  gigantic  task;  one  that  only 
Doctor  Hopkins  could  have  performed,  for  he  was  blessed  with 
perfect  health  and  a  remarkable  power  of  endurance  both 
physical  and  mental.  He  was  possessed  of  a  wonderful  ability 
for  mental  concentration,  with  remarkably  efficient  methods  of 
work,  with  a  great  love  for  work,  and  with  the  most  magnifi- 
cent spirit,  love,  and  ambition  for  rendering  service.  He 
worked  unceasingly  and  with  intensity  and  never  seemed  to 


39 


CYRIL  GEORGE  HOPKINS 

be  fatigued.  His  endurance,  energy,  and  activity  seemed  to 
be  without  limit,  and  always  he  seemed  under  inspiration. 

The  conditions  under  which  he  performed  his  notable  work 
were  very  strenuous,  trying,  and  full  of  discomfort,  but  he 
never  complained.  Whenever  I  complained,  he  would  say, 
"They  could  be  worse."  Never  was  he  melancholy,  unhappy, 
or  pessimistic.  He  was  a  real  and  true  soldier. 

Doctor  Hopkins  was  a  great  lover  of  nature,  a  keen  and  in- 
quisitive observer,  and  was  endowed  to  a  high  degree  with  a 
sense  of  humor.  Amid  his  labors  he  took  time  to  climb  many 
mountains  and  delighted  his  heart  with  the  works  of  nature. 
He  was  always  alert  and  observed  everything.  He  was  quick 
and  keen  to  see  the  humorous  side  of  life  and  took  great  delight 
in  telling  humorous  stories.  I  have  never  known  a  man  who 
had  such  an  inexhaustible  supply  of  stories  of  the  highest 
quality.  I  believe  there  was  nothing  he  said  which  he  could 
not  illustrate  with  a  story. 

Doctor  Hopkins  was  a  modest,  unselfish,  and  democratic 
man.  The  Greek  Government  offered  to  set  aside  a  special 
car  for  him  to  travel  and  the  municipal  authorities  in  the 
different  cities  of  Greece  requested  the  Government  to  notify 
them  what  day  Doctor  Hopkins  would  arrive  at  their  re- 
spective cities  so  that  they  could  receive  him  officially  and 
entertain  and  honor  him.  Doctor  Hopkins,  however,  always 
declined  these  and  similar  offers.  He  would  go  quietly  into 
a  region,  do  his  work,  and  when  he  was  ready  to  leave  he 
would  go  and  pay  his  respects  to  the  mayor  or  governor  and 
then  depart. 

Doctor  Hopkins  was  a  kindly  man,  gentle,  sympathetic, 
considerate,  courteous,  congenial,  tolerant,  lovable,  and  a  most 
wonderful  companion.  His  moral  and  ethical  standards  were 
unexcelled.  He  was  clean,  straight,  sincere,  loyal,  and  honest. 
He  always  followed  and  practiced  the  motto  never  to  do  any- 
thing that  he  could  not  honestly  justify.  The  people  of 
Greece  admired  him,  loved  him,  idolized  him,  and  worshipped 

40 


THE  CULMINATING  YEAR 

him.  They  thought  that  he  was  not  a  man,  but  a  god  and  a 
saint. 

Doctor  Hopkins'  work  is  of  incalculable  value  to  Greece. 
Its  effects  and  possibilities  are  great  and  profound.  Greece 
is  essentially  an  agricultural  country,  its  prosperity  mainly 
depending  on  its  agricultural  products,  and  yet  its  land  has 
become  so  poor  and  unproductive  that  most  of  the  time  it  does 
not  produce  even  the  seed  sown,  and  the  nation  is  compelled  to 
import  from  other  countries  most  of  its  cereal  grains  for  bread. 
Doctor  Hopkins  was  the  first  man  in  the  history  of  the  nation 
to  study  its  soils.  He  discovered  by  scientific  methods  the 
cause  of  the  infertility  and  unproductivity  of  these  soils,  and 
with  his  rare  ability,  remarkable  knowledge,  and  great  prac- 
ticability, he  worked  out  methods  of  agriculture  by  which 
these  soils  could  be  made  fertile  and  productive,  to  remain  so 
for  all  time  to  come.  He  has  thus  made  it  possible  for  the 
Greek  nation  to  produce  its  own  food  to  feed  its  people,  and  to 
be  prosperous  and  happy  thru  the  coming  generations.  His 
work  and  its  benefits  will  be  permanent  and  lasting.  Con- 
sidering what  agriculture  is  to  a  nation  and  especially  to 
Greece,  Doctor  Hopkins'  service  to  Greek  agriculture  will 
make  his  name  go  down  in  Greek  history  as  one  of  the  greatest 
if  not  the  greatest  benefactors  of  Greece. 

The  Greek  people  and  the  Government  recognized  and 
appreciated  his  lasting  service  with  grateful  hearts.  The 
Government  conferred  upon  him  the  highest  decoration  in  its 
power  to  bestow,  that  of  the  Order  of  Our  Savior,  and  sought 
to  retain  his  services  for  a  number  of  years.  The  Greek  Prime 
Minister,  who  was  at  that  time  attending  the  Peace  Confer- 
ence in  Paris,  sent  three  different  telegrams  to  his  Govern- 
ment requesting  it  to  try  to  secure  the  services  of  Doctor  Hop- 
kins for  a  number  of  years  under  any  terms. 

Great  is  his  loss  to  this  country  and  especially  to  Illinois. 
Still  greater  it  is  to  Greece  because  she  needed  him  more. 


DOCTOR  HOPKINS,  THE  PUBLIC  SERVANT 

By  DAVID  KINLEY 

Acting  President,  University  of  Illinois 

THE  common  test  of  greatness  is  power.  When  the  world 
records  its  estimate  of  a  man's  greatness  it  has  usually, 
whether  expressly  or  by  implication,  whether  consciously  or 
unconsciously,  sought  an  answer  to  its  question  by  asking  a 
second  question — What  was  the  extent  of  his  authority  or 
power? 

Look  thru  the  pages  of  history,  as  history  is  usually 
written,  for  the  names  of  those  who  in  the  past  have  been 
esteemed  great  and  you  will  find  a  record  of  conquerors  and 
slaves  and  devastators ;  of  men  who  have  built  up  great  per- 
sonal power  on  the  basis  of  force  which  in  some  way  or  other 
has  come  under  their  command.  It  is  the  conquering  kings 
of  Assyria  and  Babylonia  and  Egypt ;  it  is  Darius  and  Xerxes 
and  Alexander ;  Caesar,  Napoleon,  and  Marlborough  and  their 
like  whose  names  are  written  in  large  letters  on  the  records  of 
mankind  as  making  up  the  category  of  the  great.  We  have 
measured  their  greatness  by  the  number  of  people  whose  lives 
and  actions  they  could  control,  by  the  territory  they  conquered, 
by  the  number  of  those  whose  lives  they  were  able  to  direct, 
and,  indeed,  to  destroy.  It  is  true  that  many  of  these  so-called 
great,  in  exercising  their  power  and  establishing  their  author- 
ity over  their  fellowmen,  have  been  inspired  by  beneficent  pur- 
poses and  have  actually  accomplished  beneficent  results.  Yet 
it  is  only  in  moments  of  repose  or  pleasant  rumination  that 
we  think  of  the  beneficent  results  of  their  actions  as  the  cause 
or  evidence  of  their  greatness  instead  of  the  extent  of  their 
authority.  We  class  Alexander  and  Caesar  among  the  great, 
but  we  do  not  class  with  them — certainly  not  in  the  same 
sense — Aristides  or  Pasteur.  We  admit,  of  course,  that  they 
were  great  men,  but  only  in  the  sense  that  they  were  dis- 
tinguished men.  The  word  "great"  in  cases  like  theirs  has  no 

42 


THE  PUBLIC  SERVANT 

significance.  In  short,  we  have  been  so  long  accustomed  to 
associate  the  idea  of  greatness  with  extent  of  mere  authority 
or  power  over  men  that  we  have  difficulty  in  associating  it 
closely  with  the  idea  of  service  to  men. 

Yet  true  greatness  is  to  be  determined  in  character  and 
measured  in  extent  by  the  amount  of  service  which  a  man  in 
his  life  work  renders  to  humanity.  True,  we  will  all  agree  in 
a  measure  with  the  thought  when  thus  broadly  put.  We 
admit,  when  pressed,  that  to  call  those  who  have  had  extensive 
authority,  great  for  that  reason  alone,  is  savage,  if  not  wicked. 
But  all  thru  the  years  and  the  generations  and  the  centuries 
this  idea  of  greatness  because  of  service  has  had  only  a  dim 
and  wavering  and  interrupted  acceptance  in  the  minds  of  men. 
Its  recognition  is  clearer  and  wider  today  than  it  ever  was  be- 
fore, yet  we  cannot  be  sure  even  now  that  this  wider  recogni- 
tion and  readier  acceptance  of  the  idea  will  be  any  more  perma- 
nent than  in  previous  generations.  We  hope  so.  If  it  is  not,  it 
will  mean  that  the  progress  of  mankind  is  checked  again  so  far 
as  the  attainment  of  cultural  and  civilized  ideals  is  concerned. 

The  explanation  of  the  anomaly  in  our  moral  attitude,  as 
described  above,  is  of  course  not  far  to  seek.  The  beneficial 
results  of  the  service  of  man  to  his  kind  are  likely  to  be  seen 
only  after  his  own  generation  has  passed  away.  The  effects 
of  the  exercise  of  power  and  authority,  on  the  other  hand,  are 
evident  in  the  present.  We  see  and  feel  them  before  we  see 
and  feel  the  effects  of  good  service.  We  can  measure  the 
effects  of  true  greatness  only  after  the  lapse  of  a  long  period ; 
yet  the  estimate  of  the  character  and  attribute  of  an  individual 
is  usually  determined,  in  the  first  instance  at  any  rate,  by  the 
people  of  his  own  generation.  The  slowly  accumulating  bene- 
fits of  goodly  influence  and  quiet  service  make  less  impression 
in  the  minds  of  men  than  does  the  spectacular  and  startling 
immediate  display  of  power. 

Not  unconnected  with  the  line  of  thought  that  I  have  just 
brought  out  is  the  common  attitude  of  the  citizens  of  a  democ- 

43 


CYRIL  GEORGE  HOPKINS 

racy  toward  its  servants.  In  a  democracy  jealousy  of  the 
growth  and  exercise  of  power  by  individual  citizens  not  infre- 
quently prevents  the  community  from  securing  the  services  of 
people  best  fitted  to  render  them,  and  always  finds  expression 
in  distrust,  suspicion,  and  depreciation  of  those  who  serve 
them.  The  statement,  if  not  the  belief,  that  every  public  officer 
should  be  distrusted,  that  he  is  out  for  his  own  advantage, 
that  he  will  utilize  his  office  for  his  personal  gain,  and  that  he 
will  not  render  honest  service,  is  too  common  to  need  proof. 
Indeed,  so  common  are  the  statement  and  belief  that  some- 
times decent  men  hesitate  to  put  themselves  in  the  service  of 
the  public. 

This  same  fear  of  the  people  of  a  democracy  that  some 
individuals  will  become  too  prominent,  or  too  powerful,  has 
led  the  people  to  be  content  too  often  with  the  services  of 
inferior  men.  We  are  not  willing  to  pay  enough  in  most  pub- 
lic offices  to  get  first-class  men.  The  view  is  too  commonly 
held  that  the  public  officer  in  receiving  his  salary  is  a  benefi- 
ciary of  the  taxpayers.  The  view  is  wrong  to  the  officer  and 
to  the  people,  and  insulting  to  the  intelligence  of  both.  A  pub- 
lic officer  is  no  more  the  charitable  beneficiary  of  the  taxpayers 
than  is  the  manager  of  a  cotton  mill  the  charitable  beneficiary 
of  its  owner.  He  draws  his  pay  because  he  gives  an  equivalent 
for  it;  in  many  cases  he  gives  far  more  than  an  equivalent, 
especially  if  the  service  he  renders  is  a  service  that  he  loves. 

What  I  have  said  regarding  the  public  servant  applies  in 
the  double  sense  in  which  the  phrase  may  be  used.  We  com- 
monly think  of  a  public  servant  as  one  who  is  in  the  official 
employ  of  the  government — that  is  to  say,  of  the  people  in  the 
government.  With  reference  to  Professor  Hopkins,  however, 
I  am  using  the  term  in  a  somewhat  double  sense.  He  was  a 
public  servant  in  that  he  was  an  employe  of  a  state  institution ; 
he  was  a  public  servant  in  the  unofficial  sense  that  he  was  in 
a  real  way  a  servant  of  the  people.  One  does  not  need  to  be 
an  officer  of  the  government  in  order  to  be  a  servant  of  the 

44 


THE  PUBLIC  SERVANT 

people,  altho  every  officer  of  the  government  is,  and  ought  to 
be,  a  servant  of  the  people  in  the  sense  that  he  renders  them 
service.  It  is  with  the  work  of  Professor  Hopkins  as  a  servant 
of  the  people  that  I  am  concerned  tonight.  It  is  because  he 
has  given  service  of  high  character,  wide  in  its  influence, 
promoting  the  welfare  of  his  fellow  men  that,  for  my  present 
purposes,  I  call  him  a  servant  of  the  people,  rather  than  be- 
cause he  was  an  officer  in  a  state  college  or  a  state  experi- 
ment station.  Had  he  had  no  such  official  connection,  he  might 
have  been  a  servant  of  the  people.  Being  a  servant  in  both 
senses,  he  is  a  conspicuous  example  of  the  public  officer,  the 
individual  commonly  criticized,  depreciated,  discounted,  and 
attacked,  who,  notwithstanding  these  disadvantages,  loyally 
discharges  his  duty  and  quietly,  cheerfully,  and  gladly  gives 
his  fellow  men  the  benefit  of  the  talent  that  he  has.  It  is  with 
this  thought  that  I  am  chiefly  concerned  at  present,  and  with 
the  lesson  that  it  has  for  you  and  me. 

You  have  listened  to  an  account  of  the  greatness  and  im- 
portance of  Professor  Hopkins'  work  from  the  scientific  point 
of  view,  and  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  public  welfare. 
You  have  been  told  and  have  thought  about  the  addition  to  the 
wealth  of  the  state,  or  the  prevention  of  loss  to  the  people  of 
the  state,  which  his  scientific  discoveries  and  his  practical  appli- 
cations of  them  have  brought.  In  your  minds  you  have  meas- 
ured, in  bushels  of  corn  per  year  for  a  generation,  the  addi- 
tions to,  or  the  prevention  of  the  loss  of,  the  fertility  of  the 
flat  prairie  soil  of  Illinois.  You  have  counted  up,  in  your 
minds,  the  abandoned  lands  that  Hopkins'  studies  have  en- 
abled, or  will  enable,  the  state  and  the  world  to  restore  to 
fertility.  You  have  imaged  the  teeming  thousands  yet  un- 
born who  will  have  a  source  of  livelihood  from  those  added 
acres,  or  from  the  prevention  of  the  destruction  of  the  fertility 
of  acres  now  being  used  in  Illinois,  in  America,  in  Greece,  in 
the  world.  For  there  will,  in  the  future,  be  many  a  man  and 
woman  living  whose  existence  will  have  been  made  possible 

45 


CYRIL  GEORGE  HOPKINS 

by  the  maintenance  of  fertility  or  by  its  increase.  On  the  basis 
of  the  present  value  of  corn,  you  have  calculated  in  millions  of 
dollars  the  annual  addition  to  our  state  income  thru  Hopkins' 
discoveries.  You  have  seen  the  corn  kernel  modified  as  a 
result  of  his  studies  so  as  to  give  us  a  product  varying  in 
character  according  to  our  wishes,  and  so  have  seen,  in  your 
minds,  the  needs  of  men  better  met  as  a  result. 

But  with  all  this  I  propose  tonight  to  have  nothing  to  do, 
and  about  it  I  have  nothing  to  say.  My  purpose  is  only  to  fix 
your  attention  as  members  of  a  democratic  people  upon  the 
attitude,  the  frame  of  mind,  the  spirit  that  Professor  Hopkins 
brought  to  his  work,  and  in  which  he  did  his  work.  For  the 
cultivation  and  extension  of  that  spirit  among  the  members 
of  a  democracy  so  that  it  shall  become  the  general  attitude 
and  the  general  spirit,  will,  in  the  long  run,  be  of  greater  ad- 
vantage than  will  all  the  material  results  of  the  scientific 
achievements  of  Cyril  G.  Hopkins.  So  far  as  his  influence  and 
example  lead  us  to  adopt  his  attitude  and  spirit  and  method, 
he  will  be  doing  his  countrymen  and  the  world  still  another 
service  of  a  different  character  from,  but  no  less  important 
than,  the  service  that  he  rendered  thru  his  scientific  achieve- 
ments. For  his  attitude,  his  spirit,  and  his  example  loudly  pro- 
claim to  us  the  necessity  of  substituting  the  ideal  of  service  for 
the  ideal  of  personal  gain  in  our  dealings  with  our  fellow  men. 

What,  then,  was  this  spirit  of  service  as  shown  in  Pro- 
fessor Hopkins'  career?  As  a  servant  of  the  people  he  was  a 
teacher  and  an  investigator.  In  his  research  work  he  sub- 
ordinated his  own  gain  to  the  love  of  his  work  and  the  good 
he  was  trying  to  do.  Undoubtedly  he  could  have  made  a  large 
income  if  he  had  been  willing  to  put  his  talents  at  the  service 
of  private  individuals  or  corporations,  but  he  thought  of  the 
good  of  the  community.  His  fellow  citizens  were  dear  to  him ; 
he  wanted  them  to  live  well ;  he  wanted  the  next  generation  to 
enjoy  the  benefit  of  the  natural  wealth  that  God  has  given  this 
generation.  To  that  end  he  sacrificed  his  personal  ambition 


THE  PUBLIC  SERVANT 

so  far  as  that  might  have  been  gratified  by  fortune.  Like 
others  who  are  moved  by  this  spirit,  he  was  the  object  of 
criticism  and  attack  by  individuals  whose  private  interests 
were  crossed  by  his  plans  for  public  benefit.  As  is  not  unusual 
in  the  experience  of  men,  even  those  whom  he  sought  to  bene- 
fit were  at  times  indifferent,  at  times  scornful,  of  what  he  was 
trying  to  do  for  them,  but  he  labored  on  in  the  faith  that  his 
work  would  be  justified  in  the  end.  In  the  end  he  won  recog- 
nition, affection,  praise,  esteem,  distinction.  That  we  are  here 
tonight  is  evidence  of  the  truth  of  this  statement.  Our  meet- 
ing is  testimony  to  the  truth  of  the  proposition  that  a  life  of 
service  is,  after  all,  when  its  purpose,  its  spirit,  and  its  fruits 
are  understood  by  the  people,  a  life  of  greatness.  Our  meet- 
ing is  testimony  of  our  belief  that,  in  a  democracy  at  any  rate, 
the  truest  and  greatest  individual  is  the  one  who  most  truly 
serves.  For  it  is  a  great  sociological  and  economic  truth,  as 
well  as  a  spiritual  one,  that  in  our  relations  with  one  another 
"he  that  seeketh  his  life  shall  lose  it,  and  he  that  loseth  his 
life"  for  the  sake  of  his  fellow  men,  shall  save  it,  and  he  that 
would  be  greatest  among  us,  must  be  the  servant  of  us  all. 

The  promotion  of  the  spirit  of  service  was  never  more 
important  in  the  history  of  human  affairs  than  it  is  today.  We 
are  told  that  the  present  generation  is  having  a  new  outlook 
on  life;  that  there  is  a  changed  spirit  in  the  world.  We  are 
told  that  we  are  in  the  midst  of  a  great  revolution  in  our  aims 
and  ideals  and  spirit.  For  myself  I  do  not  think  so,  if  by  that 
statement  is  meant  that  we  are  having  a  new  spirit  or  new 
ideals  or  new  aims.  The  spirit  and  aims  and  ideals  of  men 
have  always  been  for  the  uplifting  of  one  another,  but  the 
means  that  they  have  chosen  at  one  time  have  differed  from 
those  they  have  chosen  at  another  time.  Under  some  condi- 
tions the  greatest  progress  in  civilization  was  made  by  the 
stimulation  of  individual  ambition  for  personal  gain;  under 
others,  the  greatest  progress  is  made  by  greater  recognition 
of  the  mutual  dependence  of  men  on  one  another.  As  eco- 

47 


CYRIL  GEORGE  HOPKINS 

nomic  and  political  conditions  have  changed,  the  emphasis  has 
been  thrown  from  one  point  of  view  to  another.  Today  we 
are  throwing  the  emphasis  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  in- 
dividualistic philosophy  of  the  nineteenth  century  to  that  of 
the  philosophy  of  greater  interdependence  and  the  necessity  of 
greater  mutual  service.  For  there  is  an  eternal  conflict  be- 
tween individual  selfishness  and  duty  to  one's  fellow  men.  We 
have  been  long  accustomed  to  think  that  we  were  serving  our 
fellow  men  by  pushing  forward  our  own  personal  ambitions. 
In  a  sense,  this  is  true,  but  there  is  a  limit  to  the  truth  of  the 
statement.  It  is  also  true,  and  under  the  conditions  that  obtain 
in  the  world  today  it  is  truer,  that  each  of  us  will  gain,  or  at 
least  is  more  likely  to  gain,  our  greatest  individual  success  in 
proportion  as  we  contribute  largely  to  the  general  welfare.  In 
other  words,  the  motto  on  which  we  must  lay  our  emphasis 
today  is  "Success  thru  service."  The  teacher,  the  investigator, 
the  lawyer,  the  merchant,  the  farmer,  the  doctor,  and  the 
preacher  must  all  recognize  the  necessity  of  giving  their  best 
efforts  and  their  greatest  service  to  their  communities  if  they 
are  to  reap  the  richest  rewards  in  individual  fortune,  individual 
distinction,  and  individual  esteem. 

The  spirit  of  Hopkins,  then,  is  the  spirit  that  the  problems 
of  the  day  are  calling  on  us  to  show.  The  time  of  the  sway 
of  the  legal  phrase  "Let  the  buyer  beware"  must  pass  away 
and  be  succeeded  by  the  time  in  which  each  bargainer  and 
each  worker  in  common  shall  recognize  it  as  his  duty  and  as 
the  path  to  his  highest  individual  fortune  and  distinction  to 
contribute  as  largely  as  he  can  to  the  common  weal.  It  may 
be  only  by  honest  work  of  an  ordinary  kind.  It  may  be  by  the 
exercise  of  unusual  talent  and  the  contribution  of  some  new 
idea  or  matter  or  method  to  human  progress,  as  in  the  case  of 
Hopkins.  However  our  contribution  is  made,  it  must  be  first 
of  all  a  contribution  that  promotes  the  interest  of  all,  and  our 
share  of  the  welfare  will  be  greater  the  greater  the  measure  of 
our  contribution. 

48 


THE  PUBLIC  SERVANT 

In  our  haste  to  win  what  we  think  success,  most  of  us  take 
the  direct  method  and  the  short  road.  Putting  the  matter  ex- 
tremely, it  is  quicker  to  steal  a  fortune  than  to  produce  one. 
It  is  quicker  to  get  rich  by  sharp  practices  and  unscrupulous 
business  methods  than  by  friendly  practices  and  honest  meth- 
ods. But  we  must  realize  more  and  more  that,  in  a  democracy 
at  any  rate,  the  largest  rewards  will  come  to  be  given  more 
and  more — rewards  both  of  fortune  and  reputation — to  those 
who  are  the  greatest  servants  of  all.  Therefore,  he  who  would 
succeed  most  largely  must  choose  the  indirect  method  himself, 
serve  his  fellow  men,  and  get  his  personal  gain  as  a  reward 
instead  of  seeking  to  achieve  it  without  rendering  service,  or 
at  least,  without  rendering  as  great  a  service  as  he  can. 

The  spread  and  continuance  of  this  spirit  of  service  will  be 
the  best  solution  for  the  discontent  and  the  excitement  of  our 
day.  Broadly  speaking,  the  present  conflict  of  ideas,  the  pres- 
ent agitation  in  our  country  and  others,  the  present  attempts 
made  to  substitute  class  domination  for  the  general  will,  can 
be  cured  permanently  only  by  the  adoption  by  all  of  us,  or  by 
the  majority  of  us,  of  the  spirit  of  service  as  our  ideal  of  life. 
That  adoption  will  be  hastened  in  proportion  as  the  public 
gives  a  larger  meed  of  recognition  and  reward  to  those  who  do 
the  largest  service,  whatever  the  line  of  their  activity.  If 
democracy  is  to  continue,  it  must  more  and  more  recognize  the 
spirit  of  service  in  its  members.  It  must  be  ready  to  reward 
that  spirit  of  service  with  a  generous  recognition  in  those  mat- 
ters that  are  regarded  as  individual  success,  as  well  as  in  mat- 
ters of  reputation.  The  process  of  change  will  be  long  and 
its  accomplishment  will  be  difficult,  but  until  this  spirit  be- 
comes the  general  spirit  of  the  people,  efforts  of  one  class  or 
another  to  get  domination  over  all  are  sure  to  continue.  We 
need  an  abiding  faith  in  the  ultimate  triumph  of  righteousness. 
That  faith  will  be  justified  and  strengthened  in  proportion  as 
the  spirit  of  service  spreads  and  receives  recognition.  For  that 
reason  the  recognition  that  we  are  giving  our  quiet,  gentle 

49 


CYRIL  GEORGE  HOPKINS 

scholar  is  a  cheering  sign.  Yet  how  much  better  would  it 
have  been  could  it  have  been  given  in  larger  measure  while  he 
was  still  living!  It  is  so  easy  to  love  our  prophets  after  we 
have  stoned  them  to  death,  and  so  much  cheaper !  Undoubt- 
edly the  world  will  continue  to  stone  its  prophets  and  to  rec- 
ognize them  as  such  only  after  they  have  passed  away  where 
they  cannot  appreciate  the  warm  glow  of  sympathy  and  ad- 
miration which,  in  due  time,  the  world  will  feel  and  try  to 
express.  But  it  is  only  in  the  spread  of  this  spirit  and  the 
acceptance  of  this  doctrine  that  we  can  find  the  ultimate  salva- 
tion of  a  democratic  society. 

To  my  mind  the  contribution  which  Professor  Hopkins, 
by  his  life,  his  attitude  of  mind  and  spirit,  and  his  doctrine  of 
service,  has  made  to  our  practical  social  philosophy  is  as  im- 
portant as — aye,  more  important  than — his  contribution  to 
agriculture.  For  without  the  growth  of  the  spirit  that  he  has 
shown,  democracy  cannot  endure  and  improvement  in  agri- 
culture will  be  of  little  moment. 

While  the  attitude  of  the  members  of  a  democratic  society 
must  be,  as  I  have  indicated,  generous  and  tolerant  towards 
those  who  are  seeking  to  serve  it,  those  servants  who  in  serving 
it  are  its  leaders  need  always  to  remember,  as  Professor  Hop- 
kins did,  that  they  are  but  instruments  to  be  used  until  broken 
and  then  to  be  replaced.  That  was  his  spirit.  In  that  spirit 
he  went  on  his  great  duty  to  Greece ;  in  that  spirit  he  set  his 
face  westward  on  his  homeward  return.  He  cared  little  what 
became  of  himself  so  that  his  work  was  done.  In  research,  as 
in  other  lines  of  service  for  the  people,  the  watchword  for 
everyone  who  would  be  of  use  is  "Spend  and  be  spent."  This 
is  the  record  of  those  heroes  and  leaders  who,  in  their  long 
fight  for  righteousness,  have  lifted  up  the  torch  of  courage  to 
light  the  path  of  their  fellow  men.  As  another  great  leader  has 
said :  "It  is  a  little  matter  whether  any  one  man  fails  or  suc- 
ceeds, but  the  cause  shall  not  fail,  for  it  is  the  cause  of  man- 
kind." In  this  spirit  must  each  one  of  us  make  his  contribu- 

50 


THE  PUBLIC  SERVANT 

tion.  In  this  spirit  must  each  one  of  us  seek  to  do  his  service. 
In  this  spirit  must  each  one  of  us  do  his  life  work,  content  that 
whether  distinction  comes  to  us  or  not,  is  a  matter  of  little  mo- 
ment so  long  as  God's  work  is  done. 

Finally,  the  duty  is  incumbent  upon  us  all  in  a  democracy 
to  see  to  it  that  the  society  is  true  to  itself  and  serves  its  own 
ideals.  A  democracy  that  is  rent  by  factions  is  a  democracy 
without  the  spirit  of  public  service.  It  will  fail.  A  democracy 
that  permits  itself  to  be  exploited  by  the  strong,  whether  indi- 
viduals or  groups,  will  fail,  because  the  spirit  of  service  is  lack- 
ing in  those  individuals  and  groups.  A  democracy  that  casts 
obloquy  upon  those  who  serve  it  and  discredits  them  as  self- 
seekers,  will  fail,  because  in  the  long  run  it  will  kill  the  spirit 
of  service  in  those  of  its  members  who  seek  to  do  good.  There 
is  no  way  of  success  for  democracy  excepting  in  the  wider 
application  and  practice  of  this  spirit  of  service  to  one  another. 
We  have  been  accustomed  to  say:  "I  will  achieve  individual 
success,  in  making  a  fortune  or  what  not,  and  thereby  make  my 
contribution  to  the  general  welfare."  We  must  now  say:  "I 
will  make  my  contribution  to  the  general  welfare  by  serving 
my  fellow  men  to  the  best  of  my  ability  in  the  line  of  my 
chosen  work,  and  have  faith  that  in  the  recognition  of  my 
obligation,  adequate  rewards  of  fortune  and  name  will  come 
to  me." 

The  two  ideals  are  not  incompatible ;  the  latter  is  the 
harder  path  to  follow  and  the  harder  height  to  attain.  In 
the  long  upward  walk  of  men,  only  a  few  of  each  generation 
have  chosen  that  latter  way  and  walked  that  harder  path.  But, 
thank  God,  the  number  has  been  an  increasing  one  as  the  gen- 
erations have  passed,  and  it  is  larger  today  than  it  ever  has 
been  before.  It  will  be  larger  tomorrow  than  it  is  today ;  it  will 
be  larger  tomorrow  and  more  powerful  tomorrow  because 
Cyril  G.  Hopkins  set  so  shining  an  example  of  that  spirit  and 
attitude  and  ideal  in  his  own  life. 


THE  SIGNIFICANCE  OF  THE  WORK  OF 
DOCTOR  HOPKINS 

By  E.  W.  ALLEN 

Chief,  Office  of  Experiment  Stations,  United  States  Department 
of  Agriculture 

IT  is  said,  "There  is  no  joy  the  world  can  give  like  that  it 
takes  away."  The  taking  away  of  an  illustrious  public 
servant  in  the  full  vigor  of  his  career  arouses  not  only  a  sense 
of  irreparable  loss  but  a  first  feeling  that  his  passing  was  pre- 
mature, that  his  work  had  not  been  finished,  that  he  was 
needed  to  carry  it  forward.  We  may  forget  that  life  is  meas- 
ured not  by  its  length  but  by  its  accomplishment,  that  the  most 
that  can  be  expected  of  any  man  is  that  he  "will  stir  a  few 
grains  of  sand  op  the  shore"  of  knowledge — that  his  greatest 
service  may  be  to  supply  a  new  vision  or  set  in  motion  a  move- 
ment so  far-reaching  that  it  will  require  time  and  others  to 
complete  its  fulfillment.  The  larger  the  idea  or  the  greater  its 
reach  the  more  rarely  can  he  see  it  thru.  The  work  of  a  man 
who  has  been  a  great  constructive  force  lives  on  after  he  has 
passed,  marking  a  definite  step  in  human  progress  and  gaining 
strength  with  perspective. 

In  the  death  of  Doctor  Hopkins  not  only  Illinois  and  the 
Central  West,  but  the  country,  agricultural  science,  and  the 
American  experiment  station  system,  loses  one  of  its  foremost 
students  and  one  of  its  most  conspicuous  examples  of  a  life  of 
service  in  science  for  agriculture.  He  belonged  to  all  of  us. 
He  was  a  powerful  champion  of  the  underlying  purpose  of 
agricultural  investigation,  and  he  was  a  great  stimulating  influ- 
ence in  giving  it  direction.  He  dealt  with  subjects  of  funda- 
mental importance  in  a  manner  which  was  at  once  scientific 
and  practical;  and  by  the  clearness  of  his  thinking,  the  per- 
severance of  his  efforts,  and  the  vigor  with  which  he  expounded 
his  conclusion,  he  made  a  nation-wide  impress. 

52 


SIGNIFICANCE  OF  HIS  WORK 

I  have  thought  to  consider  briefly  the  broader  aspects  of 
Doctor  Hopkins'  career  as  illustrating  the  qualities  and  re- 
quirements of  experiment  station  work  and  some  of  the  lessons 
which  his  activity  affords.  This  may  be  done  under  three 
general  heads :  first,  his  work  as  an  investigator — the  example 
of  concentration,  of  work  shaped  and  guided  in  accordance 
with  a  clear  purpose  and  a  broad  fundamental  idea;  second, 
his  work  as  an  interpreter  and  demonstrator  of  investigation — 
an  expounder  of  the  results  of  science  in  popular  form;  and 
finally,  as  a  product  of  both,  the  forceful  illustrations  he  gave 
of  the  application  of  science  to  the  most  practical  operations 
of  agriculture  and  the  far-reaching  conviction  he  aroused  in  its 
usefulness. 

Doctor  Hopkins'  guiding  purpose  may  be  found  in  the 
Biblical  command  that,  as  wisdom  is  the  principal  thing, 
"therefore  get  wisdom  and  with  all  thy  getting  get  understand- 
ing." Aye,  this  is  the  chiefest  aim  of  all,  for  understanding 
is  the  basis  of  reason  and  intelligence,  and  without  these  what 
we  designate  as  plain  common  sense  loses  its  force  and  reli- 
ability. First  and  always  he  sought  wisdom  and  the  under- 
standing of  things,  to  direct  him  in  his  search  and  to  safeguard 
him  in  interpretation. 

One  of  the  most  important  lessons  which  the  past  quarter 
of  a  century  has  impressed  upon  this  country  is  that  agricul- 
ture is  just  as  susceptible  of  investigation  and  of  understand- 
ing in  all  its  processes  as  is  engineering  or  medicine  or  any 
other  form  of  human  activity,  and  that  thorogoing  research  is 
the  most  effective  means  for  determining  safe  and  sane 
methods  for  its  advancement. 

Doctor  Hopkins'  career  was  an  example  of  the  truth  of  this. 
He  never  doubted  the  power  of  science  to  benefit  agriculture 
in  practical  ways.  His  first  interest  in  it  was  in  its  applica- 
tions, the  use  to  which  he  could  put  it  in  solving  practical 
everyday  questions  or  in  leading  to  a  clear  comprehension  of 
their  meaning.  He  did  not  hesitate  to  make  these  applications 

53 


CYRIL  GEORGE  HOPKINS 

of  science,  for  he  had  both  courage  and  faith  in  them  and  he 
was  not  deterred  by  quibbles  and  doubts. 

He  employed  science  as  a  means  rather  than  an  end.  He 
sought  its  practical  applications  in  explaining  the  meaning  and 
the  true  significance  of  facts.  He  himself  quoted  the  great 
chemist  Liebig,  who  said:  "Agriculture  is  of  all  industrial 
pursuits  the  richest  in  facts  and  the  poorest  in  their  compre- 
hension. Facts  are  like  grains  of  sand  which  are  moved  by  the 
wind,  but  principles  are  the  same  grains  cemented  into  rocks." 
He  sought  diligently  the  comprehension  of  these  facts  and 
their  development  into  principles  of  action. 

To  this  faith  in  science  and  courage  in  its  application  he 
added  the  vision  and  imagination  essential  to  any  epoch- 
making  or  revolutionary  effort.  His  view  of  practical  ques- 
tions was  not  warped  or  foreshortened  by  temporary  advan- 
tage ;  but  enabled  him  to  see  them  in  their  true  perspective  in 
the  light  of  permanent  benefits  or  effects.  And  so  he  early 
discerned  some  of  the  typical  problems  of  his  state  and  saw 
the  drift  of  the  method  of  farming  in  the  Middle  West  in  its 
ultimate  effect.  Selecting  a  few  lines  which  could  be  studied 
thoroly  in  all  their  relations,  he  threw  the  whole  force  of  his 
energy  and  enthusiasm  into  their  pursuit,  holding  on  with  bull- 
dog pertinacity  to  a  phase  of  the  problem  which  for  the  time 
being  baffled  him,  or  to  a  proposition  which  he  was  striving 
to  advance.  An  obstacle  was  to  him  something  to  be  over- 
come and  turned  into  a  stepping-stone  to  progress. 

Perhaps  his  strongest  trait  as  an  investigator  and  that 
which  teaches  the  most  powerful  lesson  was  his  devotion  to  an 
idea,  his  concentration  of  effort  on  its  development  and  sub- 
stantiation. It  gave  purpose  and  direction  to  all  his  work.  He 
refrained  from  undertaking  too  many  unrelated  things  at  once. 
He  paid  little  attention  to  experiments  which  were  merely 
comparative  or  to  narrowly  limited  trials.  His  effort  was  wide 
in  range  and  variety,  but  it  dealt  with  large  rather  than  trivial 
or  disconnected  matters — never  with  the  commonplace  or  scat- 

54 


SIGNIFICANCE  OF  HIS  WORK 

tared.  It  was  concentrated  and  consciously  aimed.  His  ex- 
tensive field  tests,  his  more  refined  experiments,  and  his 
laboratory  investigations,  whatever  their  grade,  were  parts  of 
a  greater  whole  which  centered  in  some  phase  of  a  broad,  gen- 
eral problem.  They  aimed  at  developing  a  method,  a  system, 
a  principle. 

This  was  indeed  an  important  quality  of  his  activity,  and 
well  illustrates  an  attribute  of  thorogoing  investigation  which 
itself  imposes  quite  definite  limitations  on  the  output.  It  was 
a  quality  which  enabled  him  in  the  end  to  accomplish  so  much 
that  was  worth  while.  It  showed  the  breadth  and  depth  of  his 
view,  an  intelligence  about  his  whole  subject  which  was  not 
vaporized  in  the  pursuit  of  small,  disconnected  parts.  The 
man  who  has  no  vision  beyond  unrelated  comparisons  of  this 
treatment  with  that,  measurement  and  quality  of  soil  particles, 
composition  and  form  of  materials,  but  becomes  lost  in  their 
study  for  themselves,  fails  to  see  the  forest  on  account  of 
the  trees.  The  conspicuous  names  in  agricultural  investiga- 
tion are  of  those  who  have  had  a  broad,  philosophical  grasp  of 
their  subject,  as  had  Doctor  Hopkins,  which  guided  every  step 
and  molded  the  product  into  a  symmetrical  whole. 

While  Doctor  Hopkins  was  interested  in  the  practical 
applications  of  knowledge,  he  was  not  concerned  in  merely 
practical  work  without  knowledge.  This  is  an  important  dis- 
tinction which  marks  the  man  of  science.  He  sought  first  the 
truth,  and  he  adopted  every  known  means  to  insure  it.  He 
was  content,  furthermore,  to  make  haste  slowly  if  safely.  As 
it  is  a  function  of  science  to  interpret  human  experience,  he 
gave  close  study  to  the  practices  and  views  of  leading  farmers, 
and  he  took  account  of  their  experience  in  relation  to  current 
views.  Such  an  interpretation  requires  a  high  degree  of  skill 
and  caution,  for  while,  rightly  interpreted,  all  experience  is 
useful,  it  may  be  potentially  a  source  of  grave  error.  He  had 
keen  insight  and  powers  of  observation,  and  an  analytical  mind 
which  subjected  every  result  to  critical  scrutiny.  He  usually 

55 


CYRIL  GEORGE  HOPKINS 

got  all  there  was  to  be  derived  from  an  observation  or  an  in- 
vestigation, either  in  deduction  or  suggestion. 

His  study  extended  far  beyond  the  range  of  his  own  efforts. 
He  was  by  no  means  narrow  or  self-centered,  or  engrossed  in 
his  own  theories.  He  followed  closely  the  work  of  others, 
built  upon  it,  and  embodied  it  where  it  served  his  purpose. 
For  he  was  a  master  in  marshaling  and  weighing  the  evidence 
and  in  weaving  it  into  a  theory  or  a  system  he  was  elaborating. 
Few  men  in  his  line  have  ever  drawn  so  copiously  from  the 
work  of  Rothamsted  and  other  long-time  experiments,  from 
census  data,  and  from  records  of  various  kinds  which  bore 
upon  his  thesis.  Little  that  was  current  escaped  him  or  his 
searching  analysis. 

This  is  the  true  method  of  progress  in  science — to  build  on 
what  has  gone  before.  An  eminent  French  scientist  once  said : 
"If  we  are  able  to  add  something  to  the  common  domain  in  the 
field  of  science  or  art  or  morality,  it  is  because  a  long  series  of 
generations  have  lived,  worked,  thought,  and  suffered  before 
us."  The  wholly  new  contributions  which  any  man  can  make 
are  relatively  small  compared  with  the  infinity  of  knowledge. 
All  we  know  at  present  is  a  mere  fragment  of  what  will  ulti- 
mately be  found  out. 

New  knowledge  is  built  up  by  a  constructive  process,  usu- 
ally the  product  of  many  minds.  Chance  discoveries  of  great 
moment  are  rarely  made  at  random.  Piece  by  piece  new 
truths  must  be  found  and  fitted  together.  Each  investigator 
must  rest  his  work  on  that  of  others.  He  must  "stand  upon  the 
shoulders  of  the  past"  if  he  is  to  look  far  into  the  future.  To 
know  what  has  gone  before  is  as  essential  as  to  know  how  to 
add  to  it. 

Slow  as  discovery  may  seem  to  be  by  this  method,  it  is 
after  all  relatively  rapid  when  we  think  of  the  vast  changes  in 
which  Doctor  Hopkins  has  had  a  part  in  the  twenty-five  years 
of  his  service.  Farming  on  the  basis  of  science-teaching  is 
progressing  relatively  fast.  Our  power  over  nature  is  increas- 

56 


SIGNIFICANCE  OF  HIS  WORK 

ing,  and  prediction  of  what  will  follow  a  certain  course  of 
action  can  be  made  far  more  accurately  than  ever  before. 
What  this  means  to  agriculture  is  emphasized  by  the  state- 
ment of  one  of  our  most  experienced  station  directors  that  "the 
success  of  the  farmer  consists  not  so  much  in  the  skill  of  his 
hands  as  in  his  ability  ...  to  avoid  the  isolation  of  natural 
law."  The  force  of  this  Doctor  Hopkins  well  understood,  and 
his  work  was  directed  to  interpreting  those  laws  and  influences 
so  that  the  farmer  might  better  understand  how  to  avoid  vio- 
lating them  and  how  properly  to  employ  them. 

Doctor  Hopkins  was  a  keen  critic,  and  in  this  role,  again, 
he  rendered  conspicuous  service,  because  his  criticism  was 
honest  and  was  tempered  by  real  desire  for  the  truth — not  by 
any  sordid  motives  or  purpose  to  break  down.  The  watchful- 
ness he  maintained  of  the  publications  in  his  field  had  a  whole- 
some influence,  for  criticism  which  is  sound  and  constructive 
is  the  life  of  progress  in  investigation.  It  guards  against  error 
in  deduction  and  it  leads  to  a  strengthening  of  the  evidence. 

Criticized  himself,  he  stood  firmly  for  his  views  and  de- 
fended them  tenaciously  when  he  felt  that  he  was  in  the  right, 
but  he  did  not  fail  to  profit  by  questionings  in  reinforcing  his 
position.  He  differed  often  and  honestly  with  others,  but  if 
I  view  him  aright  he  did  not  bear  malice  or  personal  feeling, 
and  the  vigor  of  his  contentions  expressed  the  force  of  his 
nature.  He  was  sure  of  himself,  as  he  had  a  right  to  be. 
Difference  of  opinion  was  with  him  a  question  of  facts  and 
their  meaning,  not  a  personal  matter. 

The  influence  of  such  a  man  on  the  progress  of  thought  and 
investigation  is  not  easily  estimated.  And  yet  he  was  not  often 
seen  at  meetings  of  scientific  men,  altho  honored  by  member- 
ship in  many  scientific  organizations.  He  lacked  the  time, 
apparently.  More  often  he  was  to  be  found  in  the  meetings 
of  farmers,  who  were  his  real  clientele.  He  did  not  need  the 
inspiration  of  personal  contact  with  men  of  science,  for  he  him- 
self felt  the  infusion  of  the  divine  fire,  and  he  imparted  it  to 
those  who  came  in  contact  with  him. 

57 


CYRIL  GEORGE  HOPKINS 

But  his  writings  commanded  attention,  and  it  was  thru 
these  that  his  broader  impress  was  made.  Not  to  read  them 
was  to  omit  keeping  abreast  of  the  times,  for  his  bulletins 
and  circulars  and  his  published  papers  always  carried  a  mes- 
sage, usually  a  stimulating  thought.  Because  he  was  known 
to  be  doing  things,  a  bulletin  by  him  was  opened  with  expecta- 
tion; and  the  plain,  straightforward,  vigorous  style  in  which 
his  results  were  presented  and  his  theories  expounded  was  the 
stamp  of  a  clear  and  forceful  mind. 

Doctor  Hopkins'  career  typified  service  in  the  best  sense. 
He  was  actuated  by  a  desire  to  do  something  which  would 
benefit  humanity,  something  which  would  endure.  For  he 
was  "working  for  the  man  with  his  coat  off,"  as  a  former  Sec- 
retary of  Agriculture  used  to  say.  He  was  not  satisfied  with 
investigation  for  itself,  but  he  demanded  to  see  it  crystallized 
in  action.  He  realized  that  it  is  not  what  a  man  knows  that 
makes  him  of  value  to  the  community,  but  rather  the  use  he 
can  make  of  his  knowledge  in  serving  the  human  race. 

He  put  his  knowledge  to  use.  He  was  a  demonstrator ;  to 
an  extent,  a  middleman  in  science.  In  some  respects  this  was 
his  most  powerful  role.  He  was  not  merely  a  compiler,  a  pur- 
veyor, but  a  digester  and  interpreter  of  investigation.  He 
translated  the  results  into  terms  of  practical  farming,  and  he 
demonstrated  the  lessons  and  expounded  them  to  wide  audi- 
ences with  power  and  with  far-reaching  effect.  He  was  a  vig- 
orous advocate. 

It  seems  to  require  some  master  of  the  art  of  forceful 
presentation,  from  time  to  time,  to  arouse  the  public  to  the  full 
meaning  of  what  investigation  is  teaching — some  one  with 
genius  for  popularizing  science  without  distorting  it,  and  for 
bringing  it  into  homely  everyday  use.  He  was  such  a  master. 

The  man  who  would  make  two  blades  of  grass  grow  where 
one  grew  before,  if  he  is  to  be  the  human  benefactor  that  Dean 
Swift  pictured  him,  must  understand  all  the  factors  that  are 
involved  and  take  account  of  the  ultimate  effects,  or  he  may 

58 


SIGNIFICANCE  OF  HIS  WORK 

prove  to  be  a  prodigal  son  instead.  It  was  because  the  produc- 
tion of  the  one  blade  was  often  at  the  expense  of  the  future  that 
Doctor  Hopkins'  voice  was  raised  and  a  crusade  conducted 
with  all  the  rugged  force  and  enthusiasm  of  his  personality. 

He  taught,  as  you  well  know,  that  agriculture  based  on  the 
provident  use  of  the  soil  is  the  foundation  of  national  welfare, 
and  that  the  maintenance  of  fertility  is  the  basis  of  permanent 
agriculture.  He  looked  upon  the  soil  as  a  legacy,  one  of  the 
greatest  natural  resources,  which  after  supplying  our  present 
needs  should  be  transmitted  unimpaired  if  not  enhanced  in  fer- 
tility and  productiveness. 

He  did  not  stop  with  the  advocacy  of  this  thesis,  but  he  set 
about  developing  a  practical  system  for  carrying  it  out.  It 
was  not  merely  a  theory  with  him ;  it  was  a  feasible,  practical 
method  of  farming.  When  he  said  in  one  of  his  later  bulletins 
— "Every  farmer  should  practice  a  high-grade  system  of 
permanent  agriculture.  This  is  made  possible  by  good  crop 
rotations  and  the  application  of  materials  economically  supple- 
menting soil  deficiencies,"  he  spoke  without  reservation  and 
from  the  depth  of  his  convictions.  The  idea  was  not  wholly 
new,  but  he  gave  new  force  to  it,  basing  it  on  work  which 
was  both  intensive  and  extensive. 

Undoubtedly  more  than  any  other  man  he  was  responsible 
for  impressing  upon  the  farmers  of  the  Middle  West  the  in- 
evitable result  of  continued  overdraft  on  soil  fertility,  and  the 
idea  of  permanent  fertility.  When  he  first  undertook  this,  his 
was  like  "the  voice  of  one  crying  in  the  wilderness,"  but 
instead  of  being  deterred  by  apathy  he  was  spurred  on.  He 
couldn't  be  stilled.  He  was  an  evangelist  preaching  the  gospel 
of  soil  fertility  and  permanent  agriculture,  to  an  audience  that 
broadened  and  widened  until  it  included  the  whole  country. 
And  he  moved  them,  he  put  his  message  across;  his  theory 
became  accepted  in  principle,  if  not  indeed  in  every  detail. 

Because  he  was  successful  and  had  such  a  far-reaching 
influence,  this  work  constituted  one  of  the  most  striking  dem- 

59 


CYRIL  GEORGE  HOPKINS 

onstrations  to  be  found  of  the  value  of  science  in  agriculture ; 
and  the  result  of  it  was  felt  in  an  enlarged  appreciation  and 
support  for  research.  We  cannot  too  often  remember  what 
such  an  influence  has  meant. 

The  manner  of  conducting  the  soil  survey,  with  its  study  of 
the  soils  in  the  field,  in  the  laboratory,  and  in  pot  cultures, 
later  supplemented  by  lysimeters,  need  not  be  mentioned  fur- 
ther than  as  an  example  of  the  thoro  and  systematic  manner 
in  which  he  brought  to  bear  every  known  method  for  the  study 
of  soils.  Here  again  he  sought  to  bring  the  work  to  a  point 
where  it  had  real,  practical  use. 

His  corn-improvement  study,  demonstrating  in  so  striking 
a  manner  how  far  the  individual  fluctuations  could  be  seized 
upon  and  used  to  advantage,  aroused  wide  attention  at  the 
time  and  lent  a  great  stimulus  to  improvement,  adaptation,  and 
seed  selection,  which  have  become  widely  established  in  theory 
and  practice. 

It  was  not  necessary  for  Doctor  Hopkins  to  wait  until  his 
career  was  closed  to  receive  the  tribute  of  success.  He  lived 
and  worked  to  a  great  purpose.  Not  only  did  he  accomplish 
things  of  large  import,  but  his  work  was  recognized,  as  the 
work  of  few  has  been,  while  he  was  engaged  in  it ;  and  he  had 
the  gratification  of  knowing  that  it  was  effective  and  was 
appreciated.  He  had  the  satisfaction  that  comes  from  doing 
a  task  well,  and  the  additional  joy  of  so  doing  it  as  to  render 
an  enduring  service.  What  he  has  meant  to  Illinois,  to  the 
Central  West,  to  the  country,  and  to  the  cause  of  permanent 
agriculture,  history  will  record  in  grateful  recognition. 

"We  glory  in  the  man  who  can; 
We  glory  in  his  might  and  mastery. 
We  glory  that  within  the  sullen  clod 
His  eyes  have  read  the  secrets  of  our  God ; 
That  his  own  hands  have  grappled  with  the  key, 
For  f ellowmen  to  set  those  secrets  free. 
We  glory  of  his  deeds  to  tell; 
And  it  ia  welL" 

60 


DOCTOR  HOPKINS,  THE  MAN 

By  EUGENE  DAVENPORT 

Dean  of  the  College  of  Agriculture  and  Director  of  the  Agricultural 
Experiment  Station,  University  of  Illinois 

A  GREAT  character  has  gone  from  among  us.  I  can  hardly 
I\  reconcile  myself  to  the  loss  of  him.  It  seems  quite  im- 
possible. He  is  away  upon  a  journey  and  some  day  will  come 
into  my  office  again  with  his  accustomed  smile  and  hearty 
greeting  and  we  shall  fall  again  to  discussing  ways  and  means 
of  insuring  for  all  time  the  producing  power  of  Illinois  soils. 
It  is  only  my  reason  that  corrects  my  vision  of  his  coming. 

Others  have  spoken  of  the  work  of  Doctor  Hopkins  and 
of  what  it  has  meant  and  will  mean  to  the  state  and  to  the 
world.  It  is  therefore  my  present  purpose  to  speak  of  the 
man,  rather  than  of  what  he  accomplished — of  his  methods  of 
work,  his  ideals,  his  visions,  and  his  peculiar  personal  quali- 
ties that  stood  as  a  background  to  give  supreme  value  to  all 
that  he  did.  It  is  important,  I  take  it,  that  this  rich  mine  of 
human  excellence  should  not  be  left  untouched  until  those  who 
knew  him  intimately  have  themselves  passed  to  their  reward 
and  it  shall  be  too  late.  It  shall  therefore  be  a  duty  as  well 
as  a  labor  of  love  to  set  down  as  impartially  as  I  am  able  the 
leading  personal  qualities  of  this  great  man  as  they  appeared 
to  me  who  lived  in  almost  daily  contact  with  him  for  nearly 
a  quarter  of  a  century. 

HIS  METHODS  OF  THOUGHT  AND  WORK 

Doctor  Hopkins'  methods  of  work  proceeded  from  his 
methods  of  thought,  for  nothing  was  artificial  with  him.  He 
did  nothing  for  effect.  His  only  object  was  "truth"  and  in 
its  quest  neither  time  nor  labor  counted  in  the  balance. 

He  was  born  as  well  as  trained  a  chemist ;  that  is  to  say, 
his  habits  and  methods  of  thought  were  analytical.  Yet  was 

61 


CYRIL  GEORGE  HOPKINS 

he  not  satisfied  with  mere  analysis — with  taking  things  apart 
simply  for  the  sake  of  laying  out  and  naming  the  pieces.  His 
only  interest  in  the  analysis  of  things  was  to  find  out  how  they 
were  made,  by  what  principles  they  were  actuated — all  for 
the  sake  of  making  use  of  their  service  and  of  insuring  their 
perpetuity. 

He  was  eminently  a  practical  man,  and  he  continually  re- 
fused to  draw  any  line  between  science  and  practice.  "Science 
is  truth,"  he  often  said,  "and  practice  to  be  successful  must 
be  based  upon  truth";  and  he  continually  insisted  that  no 
basic  difference  existed  between  those  forms  of  truth  that  have 
become  familiar  thru  long  acquaintance  and  those  newer  forms 
that  are  but  just  discovered,  or  even  those  that  still  remain 
to  be  elucidated. 

To  him,  therefore,  the  world  with  all  that  it  contains  was 
but  a  great  assemblage  of  truths  held  together  by  essential 
principles  that  have  all  the  force  of  immutable  law.  Some  of 
these  truths  and  principles  lying  on  the  surface,  so  to  speak, 
have  long  since  been  discovered  and  passed  into  practice; 
others  lying  deeper  or  held  in  more  complicated  bonds,  are 
more  difficult  of  discovery  and  application,  requiring  special 
methods.  It  is  the  reduction  of  this  class  of  knowledge  that 
is  the  special  business  of  science  and  of  the  scientist.  But 
once  discovered  these  truths  are  no  different  than  are  any 
others.  All  truth  is  truth,  and  that  is  all  that  can  be  said 
about  it. 

I  have  said  that  Doctor  Hopkins  had  a  deeply  analytical 
mind.  It  was  this  that  would  not  let  him  stop  with  the  analysis 
of  corn  as  corn,  but  led  him  to  analyze  different  ears  to  see 
if  they  were  all  alike.  Finding  them  different,  he  must  needs 
know  whether  that  difference  resided  in  the  tip,  the  butt,  or 
other  part,  and  whether  the  kernel  might  be  the  real  unit  of 
variability. 

Finding  the  substantial  differences  to  reside  in  the  ear  as 
a  whole,  his  mind  would  not  rest  until  he  determined  whether 

62 


THE  MAN 

and  to  what  extent  these  differences  were  hereditary  and 
capable  of  piling  up  in  the  distinct  strain  of  high  or  low  pro- 
tein, oil,  or  starch.  The  result  was  one  of  the  world's  most 
significant  breeding  experiments,  the  first  in  which  the  chem- 
ical constitution  of  a  seed  had  been  altered  by  systematic  se- 
lection. And  yet  Doctor  Hopkins  was  not  a  geneticist;  he 
simply  followed  his  own  mind  and  methods  in  logical  steps 
and  to  logical  conclusions. 

The  same  mental  logic  compelled  him  to  say  that  you  can- 
not compound  a  fertilizer  or  otherwise  prescribe  treatment 
for  a  soil  until  you  know  its  special  composition,  any  more 
than  can  a  physician  prescribe  a  remedy  until  he  has  first 
diagnosed  the  disease  that  is  troubling  the  patient.  It  was 
the  same  logic  that  made  him  oppose  the  phraseology  "phos- 
phoric acid"  when  it  was  phosphorus  and  not  acid  of  any  kind 
that  was  meant.  He  considered  it  illogical  to  advise  farmers 
with  one  breath  to  apply  lime  to  the  soil  to  correct  acidity, 
and  with  the  next  to  apply  an  acid,  when  all  acids  are  harmful 
and  when  there  was  not  necessarily  any  acid  in  the  material 
applied,  necessitating  an  explanation  that  would  hardly  suffice. 

He  reasoned  also  that  it  is  more  than  folly  to  buy  lime- 
stone by  the  carload  to  correct  acidity,  then  to  use  fertilizers 
loaded  with  sulphuric  acid  to  half  their  full  weight,  only  to 
increase  the  freight  and  to  make  necessary  still  heavier  ap- 
plications of  limestone. 

It  was  this  same  analytical  and  logical  habit  of  mind  that 
led  him  to  ultimate  conclusions  in  fertility  matters  where  other 
men — I  had  almost  said  all  other  men — stopped  part  way  and 
with  immediate  results.  He  saw  clearly  what  stands  to  reason  ; 
namely,  that  no  matter  what  the  system  or  how  immediately 
successful,  the  application  of  plant  food  must  be  not  only  equal 
but  somewhat  in  excess  of  that  removed  by  cropping,  else  the 
farmer  is  guilty  of  "soil  robbery"  and  the  end  would  be  ex- 
haustion and  abandonment,  which,  when  it  had  gone  far 

63 


CYRIL  GEORGE  HOPKINS 

enough,  would  undermine  and  destroy  civilization  by  cutting 
off  the  means  of  supporting  life  comfortably  if  at  all. 

In  proof  of  this  he  cited  not  only  the  inexorable  logic  of 
mathematics,  particularly  of  subtraction,  or  rather  division, 
carried  to  the  nth  degree,  but  he  also  pointed  to  the  extensive 
regions  of  the  world  the  soils  of  which  are  practically  ex- 
hausted, and  to  the  fact  that  thousands  of  our  own  once  pro- 
ductive areas  are  already  abandoned. 

He  was  at  first  opposed  by  the  farmers  who  averred  that 
they  were  now  getting  larger  yields  than  when  the  country 
was  new.  He  met  this  by  calling  attention  to  the  better  seed, 
better  tools,  and  generally  better  methods  now  in  vogue,  and 
when  he  called  attention  to  the  fact  that  America  has  aban- 
doned lands  of  her  own,  the  answer  was,  "Oh,  they  never  were 
very  good."  Confronted  with  the  fact  that  some  of  our  aban- 
doned lands,  as  in  Virginia,  were  once  very  fertile,  the  whole 
subject  was  dispatched  with,  "Oh,  they  have  been  farmed  a 
long  time."  And  Doctor  Hopkins  would  say,  "What  is  two 
or  three  hundred  years  in  the  life  of  a  people,  and  where  shall 
we  find  new  lands  when  we  have  done  with  our  old  what  the 
Aryan  has  always  done  to  his  ground — treated  it  not  as  a 
living  organism,  but  as  a  mine  to  be  worked  out,  then  aban- 
doned?" 

Doctor  Hopkins  was  even  scoffed  at  as  a  prophet  of  evil, 
and  by  others  educated  as  he  had  been  in  the  best  laboratories, 
showing  that  man  may  make  scientists,  but  only  God  makes 
the  prophet.  He  was  confronted  by  the  fact  that  civilizations 
have  existed  in  certain  regions  from  the  remotest  antiquity. 
In  reply  he  was  forced  to  call  attention  to  the  fact  that  such 
civilizations  had  either  long  since  retreated  to  river  valleys 
fed  from  vast  interiors,  as  in  China  and  Egypt,  or  else  were 
subsisting  by  the  hardest  labor,  as  in  many  parts  of  India, 
where  as  reported  by  Dean  Vivian  of  Ohio,  one  good  meal  in 
every  two  days  is  accounted  satisfactory  even  to  the  farmer, 

64 


THE  MAN 

the  "good  meal"  consisting  of  all  the  corn  cake  a  man's  appe- 
tite would  demand,  with  no  accessories. 

His  logic  and  his  invincible  arguments  gradually  won  a 
large  and  intelligent  following  and  in  this  regard  Doctor  Hop- 
kins reversed  the  ancient  and  honorable  saying  that  a  prophet 
is  not  without  honor  save  in  his  own  country.  It  was  in  his 
own  state  that  he  first  won  a  following  by  means  of  his  irre- 
sistible logic,  his  experiments  and  his  demonstrations,  all  point- 
ing to  the  same  thing,  namely,  the  reasonableness  of  his  doc- 
trine of  the  need  and  the  methods  of  securing  a  permanent 
agriculture. 

And  they  came  from  the  ends  of  the  earth  to  study  with 
him — from  Egypt,  from  China,  from  India,  from  Assyria,  and 
even  from  Nazareth.  Finally,  he  was  called  to  the  seat  of 
modern  civilization,  and  stood  with  Paul  on  Mars  Hill,  de- 
claring the  duty  of  man  to  the  soil  upon  which  he  subsists,  and 
its  full  discharge  as  a  necessary  means  of  beating  his  way  up- 
ward to  his  God. 

HIS  IDEALS 

Doctor  Hopkins  had  but  one  purpose  in  life,  and  that  was 
service,  particularly  along  the  lines  in  which  he  had  special 
training.  He  was  not  one  who  assumed  that  all  his  obliga- 
tions could  or  should  be  discharged  by  his  scientific  achieve- 
ments— far  from  it.  He  was  a  good  citizen,  interested  in  the 
details  of  community  and  public  life.  He  accepted  and  dis- 
charged all  the  ordinary  duties  of  citizenship,  and  when  time 
passed  with  no  family,  he  invited  into  the  full  privileges  of 
his  home  two  boys  who  were  homeless,  and  to  them  he  gave 
all  that  he  had  beyond  the  devotion  which  he  felt  and  lav- 
ished upon  her  whom  he  had  asked  to  share  his  labors  and 
his  fortunes.  He  gave  liberally  to  worthy  enterprises,  and 
from  a  young  man  he  tithed  all  his  earnings:  one  tenth  went 
regularly  to  the  Lord.  His  life  was  clean  in  the  strictest  sense. 
He  had  an  especial  abhorrence  of  drugs  in  any  form,  hence 
his  aversion  to  tobacco  and  liquor,  which  in  a  way  he  classed 

65 


CYRIL  GEORGE  HOPKINS 

together  because  of  their  subtle  influence,  an  impression 
formed  in  part  from  his  studies  in  pharmacy,  but  mainly  con- 
stitutional. 

His  abiding  sense  of  service  shut  out  all  possibility  of 
selfishness,  even  if  it  could  have  found  lodgment  in  his  nature, 
which  I  very  much  doubt.  He  was  so  intent  upon  accom- 
plishing what  he  had  undertaken,  and  working  while  it  was 
yet  day,  that  he  utterly  forgot  himself.  Indeed,  here  lay  his 
one  great  fault  as  we  could  see  it,  and  it  was  a  grievous  one 
— he  never  spared  himself.  Of  robust  constitution  and  of  al- 
most superhuman  vigor  and  endurance,  he  labored  continu- 
ally, against  the  better  judgment  and  the  earnest  solicitation 
of  those  of  us  who  knew  that  every  man  has  his  limits.  Day 
in  and  day  out,  month  after  month,  and  year  after  year  he 
labored  and  dreamed  for  a  better  agriculture,  and  for  one  that 
should  build  up  instead  of  exhaust  the  soil  upon  which  races 
and  nations  are  dependent  for  that  comfortable  existence  that 
permits  of  progress. 

He  had  a  keen  sense  of  humor  and  it  stood  him  in  excel- 
lent stead,  for  he  was  never  angry,  nor  was  he  ever  gloomy 
even  when  working  upon  his  most  difficult  problems  in  the 
face  of  opposition.  He  was  of  the  stuff  of  which  martyrs  are 
made,  and  in  the  end  he  was  a  martyr  as  truly  as  any  other 
that  gave  his  life  for  a  cause  or  for  the  good  that  he  could  do. 

HONESTY 

Next  to  the  spirit  of  service  and  his  ideals  of  the  respon- 
sibilities of  life,  Doctor  Hopkins'  most  distinguishing  charac- 
teristic seemed  to  be  honesty.  Not  that  ordinary  honesty 
which  distinguishes  between  mine  and  thine  in  matters  ma- 
terial, but  that  deeper  reverence  for  truth  that  refuses  to  de- 
ceive either  others  or  itself  by  things  which  are  not  what  they 
seem. 

He  talked  much  about  "absolute  truth,"  as  if  there  could 
be  any  other  kind.  What  he  meant  was  to  get  at  the  real  bot- 

66 


THE  MAN 

torn  of  things  and  be  certain  to  distinguish  clearly  between 
fancy  and  fact,  between  the  shadow  and  the  substance.  Upon 
such  a  man  ordinary  temptations  did  not  operate  but  slipped 
off  as  does  a  garment  that  does  not  fit. 

Hence  it  was  that  he  borrowed  money  to  help  develop  a 
phosphate  mine  for  service  to  Illinois,  not  for  the  money  that 
might  be  made  out  of  it,  but  to  convince  people  that  he  was 
honest  in  what  he  said  about  soil  treatment.  He  said  to  me, 
"Nothing  will  convince  like  investing  your  money,  especially 
when  you  borrow  to  do  it."  When  it  was  decided  that  sound 
University  policy  did  not  permit  of  commercial  investments 
in  line  with  service,  he  readily  understood  that  his  motive 
might  be  misinterpreted  and  relinquished  his  interests.  After 
that  he  put  all  his  private  energies  and  capital  into  the  de- 
velopment of  Poorland  Farm,  which  he  had  chosen  on  the 
most  badly  worn  soil  that  could  be  found  in  southern  Illi- 
nois. This,  too,  he  did  as  proof  of  the  honesty  of  his  inten- 
tions and  the  soundness  of  his  doctrines. 

And  now  came  what  to  many  would  have  been  the  supreme 
test.  He  was  to  develop  a  farm  upon  the  poorest  land  in 
Illinois  to  show  what  could  be  done.  Accordingly,  sympathetic 
interests  tendered  him  all  kinds  of  fertilizer  free  of  expense  to 
help  the  good  work  along  and  money  without  stint.  With 
appreciative  thanks  he  declined  while  paying  interest  on  the 
purchase  money  and  running  deeper  into  debt  for  what  he 
needed  in  order  to  put  the  farm  on  a  producing  basis.  He  even 
refused  to  buy  farmyard  manure  of  the  neighbors,  saying 
flatly,  "I  am  not  going  to  develop  Poorland  Farm  at  the  ex- 
pense of  neighboring  farms,  nor  am  I  going  to  do  anything 
that  cannot  be  done  upon  any  and  every  farm  in  the  district." 

This  is  high  ground  for  our  admiration,  and  we  are  all 
gratified  that  he  lived  to  pay  for  the  farm  and  to  make  it  be- 
gin to  yield  a  small  profit,  justifying  his  program  of  procedure 
in  the  slow  and  costly  restoration  of  worn-out  soils. 

67 


CYRIL  GEORGE  HOPKINS 

His  greatest  test  came  in  turning  aside  matters  and  money 
that  would  have  greatly  enriched  his  department  and  its  work 
upon  the  ground  that  Illinois  did  not  want  a  "lop-sided"  Uni- 
versity. More  on  this  point  I  cannot  say  without  violating 
confidence. 

LOYALTY 

Only  a  few  of  the  outstanding  virtues  of  a  man  like  Doctor 
Hopkins  can  be  mentioned  in  so  short  a  paper  as  the  limits  of 
the  occasion  impose,  but  his  spirit  of  loyalty  must  not  go  un- 
mentioned. 

His  nature  was  not  fickle.  Once  an  issue  or  an  idea  or  a 
man  was  accepted,  the  new  conception  became  a  part  of  his 
very  being  and  henceforth  figured  as  a  permanent  element  of 
his  existence.  He  was  loyal,  therefore,  not  only  to  his  family 
and  immediate  associates,  of  whom  he  conceived  no  evil,  but 
he  was  loyal  also  to  that  multitude  of  men  whom  he  came  to 
know  more  or  less  intimately  as  students,  and  to  that  larger 
company  of  business  men,  particularly  farmers,  nation-wide, 
even  world-wide  in  its  extent.  His  interest  in  truth  was  such 
that  he  forgot  both  himself  and  the  man,  and  therefore  met 
governors  and  ministers  and  kings  exactly  as  he  would  meet 
a  forty-acre  farmer  on  his  farm  in  southern  Illinois. 

His  loyalty  was  not  limited  to  ideas  and  to  immediate 
associates,  but  it  extended  widely  to  everybody  and  every- 
thing that  might  be  involved.  He  served  the  University  and 
the  state  of  Illinois  as  few  men  have  served  anything  outside 
themselves.  He  had  declined  repeated  opportunities  to  enter 
more  lucrative  service,  and  when  at  last  the  most  tempting 
proposition  came,  he  wrote  me  substantially  as  follows: 

"I  want  to  do  what  good  I  can  while  I  stay,  and  will  ac- 
cept detached  service  when  possible.  But  I  owe  all  that  I 
am  to  Illinois  and  the  University,  and  no  place  this  side  of 
Heaven  shall  take  me  away." 

In  a  few  weeks  he  was  gone  to  his  long  home,  but  he  went 
from  Illinois  as  truly  as  if  he  had  never  sailed  away. 

68 


THE  MAN 

THE  SPIRIT  OF  PROPHECY 

Doctor  Hopkins  was  more  than  a  scientist;  he  was  a 
prophet.  He  valued  science  not  for  itself  but  for  what  it  could 
be  made  to  do,  and  he  was  a  preacher  in  the  matter  of  mak- 
ing it  work. 

He  was  a  prophet,  too,  in  looking  beyond  the  immediate 
and  into  the  future.  He  depended  upon  no  impulses  and  he 
practiced  no  incantations,  but  armed  with  "absolute  truth" 
derived  from  asking  questions  of  nature,  and  fortified  by  ir- 
resistible logic,  he  thundered  against  the  sins  of  the  fathers 
as  the  prophets  of  old  thundered  against  corruption. 

I  have  heard  him  likened  to  Joseph,  whose  part  he  took 
in  a  play  one  time,  and  indeed  he  had  the  same  prophetic 
vision  in  providing  against  the  lean  years.  If  we  follow  his 
teachings  the  lean  kine  will  grow  fat  and  never  refuse  to  yield 
their  sustenance. 

I  have  heard  him  likened  to  Saint  Paul,  whose  footsteps 
he  literally  retraced  during  the  last  few  months  of  his  life. 
And  indeed  the  similarity  is  great.  Like  Saint  Paul  he  gave 
most  of  his  life  to  a  work  which  was  not  of  his  choosing,  but 
to  which  he  was  called — for  the  headship  of  the  department 
and  the  professorship  in  which  he  rendered  his  great  service 
were  tendered  him  by  cable  when  he  was  a  young  man  study- 
ing the  chemistry  of  starch  three  thousand  miles  away. 

Like  Saint  Paul  he  entered  into  larger  life  and  saw  a  vision 
of  greater  things  than  had  been  in  the  minds  of  the  masters 
under  whom  he  had  sat.  Like  him  he  turned  abruptly  and 
gave  all  that  he  had  to  the  new  call,  and  like  him  he  had  a 
vision  of  a  new  heaven  and  a  new  earth.  No  wonder  the  com- 
mon people  of  Greece,  seeing  him  walking  the  fields  and  work- 
ing wonders,  called  him  a  God. 

Such  was  the  man  who  walked  and  labored  among  us  and 
who  has  gone  to  his  reward.  His  place  will  not  be  filled,  but 
will  remain  a  blessed  memory. 


DOCTOR  HOPKINS'  WORK 

By  FRANK  I.  MANN 
Member  of  the  University  Soils  Advisory  Committee 

TTUMANITY  and  civilization  will  not  fully  realize  for  an- 
1 1  other  generation  or  more  what  was  gained  from  the  life 
of  Doctor  Hopkins,  nor  what  was  lost  by  his  premature  death. 
We  may  honor  him  now  with  our  utmost  reverence,  but  his 
greatest  honors  will  be  on  the  pages  of  the  future,  when  the 
benefits  that  come  from  his  having  lived  are  more  appreciated. 

Great  needs  call  out  for  great  men;  some  come  tardily, 
some  come  at  first  call,  and  some  anticipate  the  call.  Among 
the  latter  was  Doctor  Hopkins.  He  saw  the  need  coming,  and 
almost  before  the  first  call  he  was  preparing  himself  to  meet 
the  great  need.  He  saw  the  changing  ratio  between  popula- 
tion and  food  production;  he  saw  the  occupation  of  the  last 
large  areas  of  productive  land ;  he  saw  the  reduction  in  food 
production  on  large  areas ;  he  saw  abundant  food  as  the  foun- 
dation of  a  happy  people  and  a  higher  civilization.  What  he 
saw  gave  him  a  life  work;  always  with  a  love  for  humanity 
and  a  hope  for  higher  civilization. 

The  principles  of  food  production  had  been  given  scientific 
study  for  a  few  decades  before  Doctor  Hopkins'  time  and  a 
school  of  soil  fertility  had  been  developed.  This  old  school  was 
based  on  false  teachings,  procured  only  temporary  results,  and 
when  carried  out  long  enough,  destroyed  the  productiveness 
of  the  land.  It  was  advocated  largely  by  commercial  interests 
and  for  profit.  It  took  the  master  mind  of  a  man  like  Doctor 
Hopkins  to  separate  the  true  from  the  false  and  to  develop 
a  school  of  soil  fertility  based  on  permanency,  economy,  and 
high  productiveness ;  a  system  which  leads  to  higher  produc- 
tion the  longer  it  is  practiced ;  a  school  which  considers  and 
solves  the  food  problem  for  many  generations.  The  great 
minds  of  the  world  are  those  who  have  reduced  complex  propo- 
sitions to  simple  equations ;  who  have  changed  complexity  of 

70 


DOCTOR  HOPKINS'  WORK 

thought  to  simplicity  of  thought.    This  Doctor  Hopkins  was 
able  to  do  with  the  problems  of  food  production. 

His  use  of  common  natural  raw  materials  in  the  production 
of  food  was  strongly  objected  to  by  many  who  were  directly 
or  indirectly  gaining  profits  out  of  the  old-school  systems,  and 
many  honorable  and  dishonorable  efforts  were  used  to  discredit 
the  more  simple  and  truthful  methods.  Doctor  Hopkins  was 
always  ready  to  take  issue  with  the  opponents  of  the  new 
school  of  fertility;  and  being  always  sure  of  his  ground,  he 
was  at  his  best  when  discussing  points  of  controversy.  In  his 
strongest  defense  against  critics  he  had  no  feeling  other  than 
a  desire  for  justice. 

Doctor  Hopkins'  love  of  humanity  was  his  greatest  emo- 
tion. While  knowing  full  well  the  dangers  that  might  come 
in  his  mission  abroad,  he  did  not  hesitate  to  accept  what  he 
considered  a  duty  to  humanity. 

One  phase  of  his  life  work  is  done ;  another  is  left  undone ; 
and  it  must  become  the  duty  of  the  many  who  received  inspira- 
tion and  the  light  from  Doctor  Hopkins  in  his  lifetime,  to 
revere  his  memory  and  carry  on  the  dissemination  of  his  great 
principles,  in  the  spirit  he  would  have  given — a  love  for 
humanity. 

— Editorial  in  the  Prairie  Farmer,  October  S5,  1919. 


EXTRACTS  FROM  LETTERS  FROM  COLLEAGUES 
AND  FORMER  STUDENTS 


EXTRACTS  FROM  LETTERS  FROM  COLLEAGUES 
AND  FORMER  STUDENTS 

"His  going  will  be  a  great  loss,  almost  an  irreparable  one  as  we 
think  of  it.  He  has  done  a  wonderful  work  for  the  farmers  of  Illi- 
nois and  for  the  whole  country  as  well,  and  it  is  extremely  regrettable 
that  his  life  should  now  have  been  sacrificed  in  his  high-minded  pur- 
pose to  bring  aid  to  another  country  in  time  of  distress." 

E.  W.  ALLEN 
Chief,  Office  of  Experiment  Stations 

"I  am  shocked  to  read  in  Science  of  the  death  of  Dr.  Hopkins. 
This  is  a  real  calamity.  You  will  have  the  sympathy  of  all  the 
workers  and  friends  in  the  field. 

"I  trust  that  the  notes  and  studies  of  his  observations  in  Greece 
are  intact  and  will  be  available  for  publication." 

L.  H.  BAILEY 

"Equipped  for  his  life  work  with  unusual  physical  and  mental 
powers,  which  he  kept  in  condition  by  an  absolutely  clean  and  relig- 
iously moral  life;  with  a  love  for  truth  which  could  brook  no  de- 
parture from  that  standard;  with  an  industry  that  took  no  account 
of  the  size  of  the  task  before  him;  with  an  altruism  which  placed 
the  helping  of  others  far  above  his  personal  comfort,  he  made  for 
himself  a  place  in  the  respect  and  esteem  of  his  compeers  and  of  his 
students,  both  those  of  the  classroom  and  of  the  farm,  that  can  never 
be  measured  by  any  money  valuation. 

"I  count  it  one  of  the  great  privileges  of  my  life  to  have  had  his 
friendship  and  his  counsel." 

CHARLES  E.  THORNE 
Director,  Ohio  Agricultural  Experiment  Station 

75 


CYRIL  GEORGE  HOPKINS 

"I  think  it  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  among  his  contemporaries 
Dr.  Hopkins  was  the  greatest  exponent  of  the  science  and  practice 
of  soil  conservation  in  America.  His  reliance  upon  the  importance 
of  fundamental  research,  his  remarkable  judgment  in  applying  dis- 
coveries of  science  to  the  practice  of  soil  improvement,  is  a  glowing 
example  of  the  opportunity  which  awaits  every  young  man  of  imagina- 
tion who  devotes  himself  with  a  single-minded  purpose  to  the  de- 
velopment of  agriculture  through  scientific  research." 

F.  B.  MUMFORD 

Dean  of  the  Missouri  College  of  Agriculture  and 
Director  of  the  Agricultural  Experiment  Station 


"This,  I  feel,  is  a  blow  not  only  to  the  University  of  Illinois  but 
to  the  agricultural  world  as  well.  Just  before  he  left  Greece  he  sent 
me  some  publications  covering  the  work  of  his  year  in  that  ancient 
home  of  a  classic  people.  He  was  acting  and  working  in  the  interests 
of  others  even  to  the  last  and  contracted  the  disease  which  caused 
his  death  because  of  his  intense  interest  in  science.  Dr.  Hopkins  will 
long  be  remembered  for  his  saneness  in  agricultural  matters  during 
an  age  when  speculation  and  theorization  seemed  to  run  wild,  and  he 
has  held  us  all  along  safe  lines. 

"I  shall  always  look  back  with  pleasure  upon  the  very  happy  and 
profitable  year  that  I  had  the  pleasure  of  spending  at  the  University 
of  Illinois  under  the  direction  of  this  great  teacher." 

HENRY  G.  KNIGHT 

Dean  of  the  Oklahoma  School  of  Agriculture  and 
Director  of  the  Agricultural  Experiment  Station 


"He  has  rendered  to  the  people  of  the  United  States  a  peculiar 
service  which  makes  him  a  truly  national  figure.  I  have  no  doubt 
the  work  he  has  done  in  Greece  will  also  have  large  results." 

E.  A.  BURNETT 

Dean  of  the  Nebraska  College  of  Agriculture  and 
Director  of  the  Agricultural  Experiment  Station 

76 


LETTERS  FROM  COLLEAGUES  AND  STUDENTS 

"While  words  are  a  poor  solace  at  such  a  time  as  this,  there 
must  be  some  degree  of  satisfaction  in  knowing  that  your  brother, 
Dr.  Cyril  Hopkins,  had  a  wonderful  career,  a  career  of  which  you 
may  feel  very  proud  and  to  which  we  South  Dakotans,  especially 
those  of  us  who  have  a  personal  connection  with  the  State  College, 
point  with  the  greatest  satisfaction.  As  a  pioneer  in  the  study  of 
soils,  he  may  almost  be  called  the  father  of  permanent  agriculture. 
As  a  teacher  and  an  inspirer  of  young  people,  he  had  no  superior,  and 
as  a  m,an,  a  gentle  man,  deeply  interested  in  the  personal  problems  of 
his  pupils  and  filled  with  the  spirit  of  serving  them  and  helping  them 
surmount  their  difficulties,  I  doubt  whether  he  had  an  equal.  I  have 
heard  many  of  his  former  pupils  speak  of  him  with  the  greatest  rev- 
erence and  affection. 

"It  seems  to  us  that  we  cannot  let  him  go.  We  can  but  wonder 
why  a  man  like  him  should  be  stricken  down  when  he  was  apparently 
at  the  height  of  his  powers.  But  we  know  that  the  world  is  better 
because  Cyril  Hopkins  lived." 

ROBERT  L.  SLAGLE 

President,  University  of  South  Dakota 
(Written  to  Mr.  H.  L.  Hopkins) 


"Agricultural  work  in  this  country  has  lost  one  of  its  foremost 
workers,  and  he  will  be  sadly  missed  in  our  agricultural  work." 

B.  W.  KILGORE 
Director,  North  Carolina  Agricultural  Experiment  Station 


"I  had  considerable  acquaintance  with  Dr.  Hopkins  and  always 
admired  his  sturdy  common  sense  and  tenacity  of  purpose.  His  un- 
timely death  was  a  great  shock  and  was  a  real  loss  to  practical  and 
scientific  agriculture.  Such  men  as  he  are  far  too  few,  and  can  be 
illy  spared." 

J.  T.  WlLLARD 

Vice-President,  Kansas  State  Agricultural  College 
Vice-Director,  Agricultural  Experiment  Station 

77 


CYRIL  GEORGE  HOPKINS 

"I  have  been  so  intimately  associated  with  Dr.  Hopkins  for  more 
than  a  quarter  of  a  century  that  I  have  come  to  regard  him  more  as 
a  brother  than  as  a  friend.  The  news  of  his  untimely  death  so  far 
from  home  is  a  dreadful  shock  to  me. 

"He  not  only  was  wise  and  practical,  but  he  had  a  true  vision 
of  the  future  of  agriculture.  He  hesitated  not  to  speak  his  mind 
when  convinced  of  the  truth.  He  opposed  error  with  as  much 
vehemence  as  he  espoused  the  cause  of  right.  His  was  a  giant  figure 
in  modern  scientific  agriculture. 

HARVEY  W.  WILEY 
Formerly  Chief  Chemist,  United  States 
Department  of  Agriculture 


"We,  in  North  Carolina,  were  greatly  shocked  to  learn  of  his 
untimely  death.  We  realize  that  the  Nation  has  lost  one  of  its  great- 
est thinkers  in  agriculture.  Dr.  Hopkins,  in  the  life  he  lived,  exem- 
plified his  basic  thought  in  permanent  agriculture  of  returning  more 
to  the  soil  than  was  taken  away.  He  gave  more  than  he  received." 

W.  F.  PATE 

Agronomist,  North  Carolina  Agricultural  Experiment  Station 


"In  the  passing  of  such  a  man  as  Hopkins  in  his  prime,  agriculture 
has  lost  a  serving  scientist  whose  plans  were  builded  on  the  solid  rock 
of  truth. 

"I  doubt  whether  his  associates  at  Illinois  realize  what  an  inspira- 
tion his  leadership  has  been  to  the  younger  men  in  agronomy  and  soils 
science,  but  to  me  at  least  he  has  always  stood  out  as  a  great  exponent 
of  the  positive.  Essentials  always  loomed  large  with  him." 

H.  L.  WALSTER 

Chairman  of  the  Department  of  Agronomy,  North  Dakota 
College  of  Agriculture  and  Agricultural  Experiment  Station 

78 


LETTERS  FROM  COLLEAGUES  AND  STUDENTS 

"His  enthusiasm,  painstaking  labor  in  his  search  for  truth,  and  his 
ability  as  a  teacher  both  in  the  classroom  and  in  the  agricultural  press 
were  exceptional.  Illinois  has  by  his  death  lost  one  of  her  most  use- 
ful citizens  and  American  agriculture  one  of  its  men  of  highest  mark." 

WILLIAM  FREAR 

Vice-Director  and  Chemist,  Pennsylvania  Agri- 
cultural Experiment  Station;  Chemist, 
State  Department  of  Agriculture 


"We  are  extremely  sorry  to  learn  of  the  death  of  Dr.  Hopkins 
and  know  that  it  is  a  great  blow  to  Illinois.  However,  he  had  built 
up  a  lasting  work  and  this  work  will  continue  to  become  of  even 
greater  importance." 

H.  H.  LOVE 

Professor  of  Plant  Breeding,  New  York  College  of 
Agriculture  and  Agricultural  Experiment  Station 


"The  world  has  lost  a  strong  man,  one  who  has  given  much  to 
the  science  and  practice  of  agriculture.  He  died  in  service  as  he 
would  want  to  and  in  a  field  of  work  near  to  his  heart.  I  believe 
that  I,  having  been  over  there,  can  see  as  but  few  others  can  the  great 
mental  strain  that  comes  to  a  man  who  ventures  assistance  to  those 
destitute,  simple,  but  noble  people." 

C.  P.  BULL 

Associate  Agronomist,  Minnesota  College  of  Agri- 
culture and  Agricultural  Experiment  Station 


"The  cause  of  scientific  agriculture  has  lost  one  of  its  foremost 
leaders,  and  on  behalf  of  the  farmers  of  the  Middle  West,  I  extend 
to  you  and  your  colleagues  my  heartiest  sympathy." 

H.  J.  WATERS 
Editor,  Kansas  City  Weekly  Star 

79 


CYRIL  GEORGE  HOPKINS 

"The  untimely  death  of  Doctor  Hopkins  is  a  great  state  and 
national  loss  and  a  peculiarly  poignant  shock  to  those  who  knew  him. 
Many  years  ago  I  saw  a  great  deal  of  him  and  had  an  opportunity 
of  learning  something  of  the  innate  traits  and  characteristics  which 
made  him  one  of  the  outstanding  figures  among  modern  agricultural 
scientists.  He  was  a  lovable  and  noble  character." 

DEWITT  C.  WING 
Editor,  The  Breeder's  Gazette 


"I  am  staggered  by  the  news  of  Dr.  Hopkins'  death.  I  cannot  see 
how  we  can  get  along  without  him:  His  family,  the  College  and 
University,  the  people  of  Illinois,  and  the  Nation  are  in  need  of  his 
master  mind.  It  makes  the  whole  world  seem  dark.  Personally  I 
feel  his  loss  as  I  would  that  of  almost  no  one  else.  He  was  one  of 
two  men  who  exerted  more  influence  on  my  life  than  all  others ;  the 
other  was  a  friend  of  my  youth.  I  don't  see  how  I  can  get  along 
without  Dr.  Hopkins." 

F.  I.  MANN 
Member  of  University  of  Illinois  Soils  Advisory  Committee 


"I  am  not  able  to  express  the  sorrow  I  feel,  and  wish  to  extend 
to  yourself  and  his  other  co-workers  in  the  College  my  sincere  sym- 
pathy. The  soil  of  Illinois  has  lost  the  best  friend  it  has  ever  had, 
yet  the  farm  homes  over  the  state  and  the  increased  food  that  will 
be  given  to  the  world  thru  Dr.  Hopkins'  efforts  will  be  a  memorial 
that  will  keep  him  in  mind  for  many  generations. 

"The  Illinois  Farmers'  Institute  has  lost  one  of  its  best  friends 
and  ardent  supporters.  We  shall  miss  him  greatly,  and  I  am  certain 
I  can  speak  for  the  entire  Board  in  saying  it  is  a  personal  loss  to  each 
one  of  us." 

FRANK  S.  HAYNES 
President,  Illinois  Farmers'  Institute 

80 


LETTERS  FROM  COLLEAGUES  AND  STUDENTS 

"Let  us  hope  that  Greece  is  worthy  the  sacrifice  and  that  the  work 
which  he  did  in  the  Cradle  of  Learning  will  become  as  common  world 
property  as  are  Vergil  and  Homer. 

"We  can  replace  captains  of  industry,  judges,  generals  and  even 
presidents,  but  how  can  Dr.  Hopkins  be  replaced ! 

A.  N.  ABBOTT 
Director,  Illinois  Farmers'  Institute 

"Permit  me  to  pay  this  brief  and  incomplete  tribute  to  a  man 
whose  service  to  agriculture  did  so  much  to  make  possible  agriculture's 
ability  to  triumph  over  present  obstacles  and  to  insure  humanity  ample 
food  under  conditions  which  mean  that  the  new  era  now  in  sight 
is  to  be  the  most  glorious  in  the  evolution  of  civilization." 

HERBERT  MYRICK 
Editor-in-Chief,  Farm  and  Home 

"In  Dr.  Hopkins'  untimely  death,  the  state  of  Illinois,  the  nation, 
and  yes,  the  world,  loses  its  foremost  authority  on  soils  and  crops.  In 
my  judgment,  Dr.  Hopkins  has  done  more  than  any  other  man  to 
help  solve  agricultural  problems.  While  he  was  employed  by  the 
state  of  Illinois,  his  work  was  known  all  over  this  country  and  other 
countries.  Wherever  I  have  gone  I  have  found  that  the  people  had 
confidence  in  Dr.  Hopkins  and  were  following  his  recommendations." 

W.  J.  KENNEDY 
President,  Purity  Biological  Laboratories 

"The  world  is  richer  for  his  having  lived  and  all  humanity  poorer 
by  his  having  gone  from  among  us." 

P.    G.    HOLDEN 

Director  of  Agricultural  Extension, 
International  Harvester  Company 

"I  never  was  impressed  with  the  real  greatness  of  Dr.  Hopkins 
until  that  May  morning  in  the  driveway  of  Poorland  Farm.  There 

81 


CYRIL  GEORGE  HOPKINS 

I  had  a  vision  which  will  always  be  mine.  He  stood  there  with  bared 
head  and  spoke  words  which  thrilled  me.  Then  I  began  to  under- 
stand as  never  before.  I  never  pick  up  that  text  "Permanent  Agri- 
culture," I  never  teach  a  class  about  soils,  without  that  vision  of  the 
man,  Dr.  Hopkins,  like  a  prophet  of  old,  sending  forth  his  message 
of  "Permanency."  A  farmer  who  went  with  us  all  the  day  long 
made  this  remark  to  me,  "Dr.  Hopkins  is  worth  his  weight  in  gold 
to  the  farmers  of  Illinois."  To  this  I  could  well  agree;  and  I  still 
believe  it." 

FRANK  L.  BENNETT 
Former  student  of  Doctor  Hopkins 


"Through  his  death,  it  is  not  only  that  the  United  States  has  lost 
a  great  scientist,  and  the  University  of  Illinois  has  lost  a  great  pro- 
fessor; but  also  that  the  soil  fertility  has  lost  its  best  friend.  His 
work  on  permanent  agriculture,  his  advocation  of  the  use  of  lime- 
stone and  rock  phosphate,  and  his  successful  proof  of  the  inoculation 
of  alfalfa  with  the  nodule  germs  of  melilotus,  make  me  feel  that  what 
he  did  for  soil  fertility  is  at  least  equal  to,  if  not  more  than,  what 
Dr.  T.  J.  Burrill  had  done  for  plant  disease.  Indeed,  he  accomplished 
much,  yet  much  more  still  we  expected  from  him  on  account  of  his 
scientific  genius,  his  good  health,  and  his  age.  His  death  is  totally 
out  of  our  expectation.  May  God  bless  his  family!" 

S.  S.  CHEN 
Former  student  of  Doctor  Hopkins 


"Accept  my  deepest  regrets  and  sympathies  on  the  death  of  your 
eminent  professor,  Dr.  Cyril  G.  Hopkins,  whose  name  will  remain 
immortal  to  the  Greek  agronomists  for  his  most  useful  study.  It  is 
undoubtedly  the  foundation  of  scientific  agronomy  in  Greece." 

PERICLES  CALLERGIS 

Chemist,  Agricultural  Chemical  Laboratory, 

Athens,  Greece 

82 


LETTERS  FROM  COLLEAGUES  AND  STUDENTS 

"Professor  Hopkins  was  a  man  whose  qualities  were  universally 
admired  by  his  associates  in  the  American  Red  Cross,  and  by  all  the 
many  Greeks  with  whom  he  came  in  contact.  The  service  which  he 
rendered  to  Greece  is  almost  incalculable,  for  he  worked  with  tire- 
less energy  and  with  a  full  understanding  of  what  each  situation  re- 
quired. Certainly  Greece  has  acquired  no  more  devoted  or  unselfish 
friend  than  Professor  Hopkins,  and  his  loss  will  be  deeply  mourned 
by  the  large  number  who  have  come  into  contact  with  him.  He  was 
a  martyr  to  Greece,  for  the  malaria  which  prostrated  him  must  have 
been  caught  during  his  trips  about  the  country  where  malaria  is  the 
curse  of  the  people. 

"For  his  work  and  for  his  supreme  sacrifice  I  admire  him,  and 
I  wish  to  join  my  tribute  to  the  many  he  will  receive  from  those  who 
knew  him  and  appreciated  him.  He  died  in  service,  after  giving 
without  stint  everything  he  could  give.  He  leaves  the  world  a  bet- 
ter world  for  his  having  lived. 

"I  send  you  my  heartfelt  sympathy  for  the  loss  which  you  have 
sustained." 

MAJOR  HENRY  B.  DEWING 

Representing  the  American  Red  Cross  in  Greece 

"Deeply  regret  to  hear  of  the  death  of  the  distinguished  Professor 
Hopkins.  Greece  loses  a  good  friend  whose  valuable  services  she 
intended  again  to  avail  herself  of  in  the  future.  Kindly  convey  to 
his  family  our  heartfelt  sympathy."  (Cablegram) 

K.  SPIRIDIS 
Minister  of  Agriculture,  Greece 

"The  death  of  the  American  Major  Hopkins,  recently  announced, 
has  caused  great  grief  to  the  Athens  public.  Our  people  have  been 
quick  to  recognize  and  appreciate  the  worth  of  the  man,  his  zeal,  and 
the  warm  sentiments  of  friendship  which  he  has  displayed  toward 
Greece  in  rendering  his  great  and  valuable  service  as  a  member  of 
the  American  Red  Cross  in  Greece. 

83 


CYRIL  GEORGE  HOPKINS 

"This  splendid  American  officer  rendered  to  the  suffering  popu- 
lation of  Macedonia  a  service  which  was  actually  inestimable." 

Translation  of  a  notice  appearing  in  Hestia,  one 
of  the  newspapers  of  Athens,  October  12,  1919 


"It  is  with  great  sorrow  that  the  Royal  Agricultural  Society  has 
heard  of  the  death  of  the  eminent  scientist,  Dr.  Hopkins,  Professor 
of  your  University  and  a  distinguished  member  of  the  American  Red 
Cross  in  Greece. 

"Our  Society's  Council  board  wishes  us  to  express  herewith  its 
sincerest  condolences  for  the  loss  of  a  man  who  extended  his  beneficent 
action  beyond  his  country  and  worked  with  notorious  zeal  for  the 
agricultural  progress  in  Greece." 

P.  CALLIGAS,  Vice-President 

PH.  G.  PALIATSEAS,  Secretary  General 

Royal  Agricultural  Society,  Athens,  Greece 


"The  city  of  Athens  has  been  greatly  saddened  by  the  death  of 
the  ever  memorable  Cyril  George  Hopkins,  whom  it  had  the  good 
fortune  to  know  for  a  time.  The  Meropeon  Society  for  the  Train- 
ing of  Girls  in  Need  hastens  to  extend  to  you  its  sympathy  and  bid 
you  have  courage  and  pride  in  your  grief.  Major  Hopkins  fell  more 
gloriously  than  did  any  of  the  generals,  and  he  left  not  only  the 
splendor  of  glory  but  also  the  spirit  of  benevolence  and  of  love,  even 
as  did  the  great  general  of  peace  and  of  love,  the  Christ." 

ANNA  P.  THEODOROPOULOU 
( Translation  of  a  letter  written  to  Mrs.  Cyril  Hopkins) 


"On  the  occasion  of  the  death  of  Cyril  Hopkins,  please  accept  the 
condolences  of  one  who  recognizes  the  value  of  the  service  which  he 
rendered  the  Greeks  as  a  director  of  this  philanthropic  organization  in 


LETTERS  FROM  COLLEAGUES  AND  STUDENTS 

Greece.  The  information  has  come  to  me  thru  the  newspapers.  I 
beg  pardon  for  not  using  ink  inasmuch  as  such  a  thing  does  not  exist 
in  this  place." 

ANTONIOS  M.  LIOSES 

Seaman,  Central  Training  School,  Poros,  Greece 
(  Translation  of  a  letter  addressed  to  the  Di- 
rector of  the  American  Red  Cross  in  Athens) 


"Those  who  believed  very  deeply  in  Doctor  Hopkins'  work  feel 
that  our  leader  is  taken  away.  His  work  amounted  to  a  cause  for  all 
peoples,  for  human  advancement  must  go  forward  by  such  work  as 
was  done  by  him.  With  him  personally  his  work  was  part  of  an 
abiding  faith  that  inspired  others — to  believe  in  the  soil,  as  the  basis 
of  human  life.  His  desire  to  preserve  the  land  was  his  ruling  passion. 
"It  is  no  sentimentality  to  say  that  the  Great  Spirit  led  him  out 
to  spend  a  year  among  those  Grecian  peasants,  stricken  by  war, 
famine,  starvation,  pestilence — telling  the  Greeks  how  civilization 
must  be  rebuilt  on  the  basis  of  knowledge  about  the  land.  He  finished 
that  report,  and  gave  it  to  the  Greeks;  telling  them  again  that 
peoples  must  learn  to  use  the  earth  and  not  abuse  it — for  that  is  the 
law  of  life." 

ALBERT  NASH  HUME 

Agronomist  and  Superintendent  of  Substations, 

South  Dakota  State  College  of  Agriculture 

and  Agricultural  Experiment  Station 

(Extract  from  an  editorial  in  the  Farmer  and  Breeder) 


"Great  as  were  his  achievements  in  his  chosen  field,  and  their 
effects  will  be  felt  for  generations,  still  to  us  he  was  greater  as  a  man 
than  as  a  scientist,  for  he  had  a  breadth  which  was  not  always  realized 
because  of  his  earnestness  in  advocating  his  cause;  he  had  a  kindly, 
genial  spirit  though  he  did  not  advertise  it;  and  he  was  the  soul  of 
honor  and  constancy.  The  country  misses  and  mourns  Doctor  Hop- 
kins as  a  scientist,  a  patriot,  a  diligent  upbuilder  of  its  fundamental 

85 


CYRIL  GEORGE  HOPKINS 

source  of  prosperity.    We  miss  and  mourn  him  thus,  but  first  as  a 
friend  always  loyal,  helpful,  hopeful,  and  kind." 

E.  S.  BAYARD 

Editor,  National  Stockman  and  Farmer 
(Extract  from  an  editorial) 

"It  was  more  than  twenty-five  years  ago,  and  a  very  rough  late 
October  day,  when  the  Associate  Editor  of  the  Missouri  Farmer 
first  met  Cyril  G.  Hopkins,  then  a  young  man  just  beginning  his  work 
teaching  Agricultural  Science  in  the  Illinois  College  of  Agriculture. 
The  ground  was  wet  and  frozen,  but  the  young  professor  insisted 
that  he  accompany  the  plain  farmer  over  the  fields  to  show  him  the 
experiments  in  soil  fertility  then  just  well  started,  and  which  have 
since  become  world  famous. 

"He  promised  to  keep  that  farmer  advised  as  to  the  results  of 
these  experiments,  and  he  did  not  forget  that  promise  as  many  other 
busy  men  would  have  done.  Every  phase  of  it  has  been  reported  to 
him  in  bulletins,  books  and  private  letters. 

"We  have  met  in  these  fields  a  good  many  times  since  that  cold 
day,  and  have  seen  the  work  of  that  one  great  man  which  has  meant 
so  much  to  those  who  have  followed  his  teachings.  A  little  more  than 
two  years  ago,  on  a  fine  June  day,  I  walked  over  these  same  fields  with 
him  the  last  time  we  ever  met ;  two  men  who  were  getting  gray  and 
old,  he  to  go,  a  famous  man,  into  the  Old  World  to  help  solve  the 
war  problems  for  them  there  as  he  had  been  assisting  in  solving  those  of 
our  own  farmers  here  so  many  years,  I  to  go  back  to  my  farm  and 
to  my  desk  hoping  to  apply  some  of  the  things  he  had  taught  me  and 
to  spread  the  gospel  of  a  better  agriculture  among  my  fellow  farmers." 

C.  D.  LYON 
(Editorial  in  the  Missouri  Farmer) 


86 


WRITINGS  OF  CYRIL  GEORGE  HOPKINS 

Compiled  by  Louie  Henrie  Smith 

1893  Decomposition   of   Diazobenzene   Sulfate   in   Isoamyl   Alcohol.      (With 

Wm.  R.  Orndorff)  Amer.  Chem.  Journ.,  vol.  15,  p.  518. 

1894  Analyses  of  Commercial  Fertilizers.     (With  W.  C.  Garrard)  ///.  State 

Ed.  Agr.  Rpt.,  1892-4,  p.  13. 

1896  Composition   and    Digestibility  of   Corn   Ensilage,   Cow  Pea  Ensilage, 

Soja  Bean  Ensilage,  and  Corn  Fodder.    ///.  Agr.  Exp.  Sta.  Bui.  43. 

On  the  Determination  of  the  Acidity  of  Milk  and  Cream.  (With 
W.  A.  Powers)  Proc.  12th  Ann.  Con.  of  A.  O.  A.  C.,  1895,  U.  S. 
Dept.  Agr.,  Div.  Chem.  Bui.  47,  p.  125. 

A  New  Safety  Distillation  Tube  for  Rapid  Work  in  Nitrogen  Deter- 
mination. Journ.  Amer.  Chem.  Soc.,  vol.  18,  p.  227. 

1897  Special  Instructions  for  Taking  Samples  of  Sugar  Beets  for  Analysis. 

(With  P.  G.  Holden)  ///.  Agr.  Exp.  Sta.  Circ.  3. 

1898  The  Sugar  Beet  in  Illinois.     (With  Perry  G.  Holden)   ///.  Agr.  Exp. 

Sta.  Bui.  49. 

The  Chemistry  of  the  Corn  Kernel.     ///.  Agr.  Exp.  Sta.  Bui  53. 
Special  Instructions  for  Taking  Samples  of  Sugar  Beets  for  Analysis. 

///.  Agr.  Exp.  Sta.  Circ.  12. 

The  Oil  of  Corn.    Journ.  Amer.  Chem.  Soc.,  vol.  20,  p.  948. 
Some  Errors  in  the  Determination  of  Nitrogen.     Journ.  Amer.  Chem. 

Soc.,  vol.  20,  p.  961. 
A  Condenser  for  Extraction  Work.     Journ.  Amer.  Chem.  Soc.,  vol.  20, 

p.  965. 

1899  Improvement  in  the  Chemical   Composition  of  the   Corn  Kernel.     ///. 

Agr.  Exp.  Sta.  Bui.  55. 

How  to  Ignite  a  Hydrogen  Jet  with  no  Possibility  of  Exploding  the 
Generator.  (Note)  Journ.  Amer.  Chem.  Soc.,  vol.  21,  p.  634. 

The  Incandescent  Electric  Lamp  as  a  Source  of  Heat  in  Ether  Extrac- 
tion. Journ.  Amer.  Chem.  Soc.,  vol.  21,  p.  645. 

Improvement  in  the  Chemical  Composition  of  the  Corn  Kernel.  Journ. 
Amer.  Chem.  Soc.,  vol.  21,  p.  1039. 

A  Plea  for  a  Scientific  Basis  for  the  Division  of  Soil  Particles  in 
Mechanical  Analysis.  Proc.  15th  Ann.  Con.  of  A.  O.  A.  C.,  1898, 
U.  S.  Dept.  Agr.,  Div.  Chem.  Bui.  56,  p.  64. 

A  Rapid  Method  of  Mechanical  Soil  Analysis,  Including  the  Use  of 
Centrifugal  Force.  Proc.  15th  Ann.  Con.  of  A.  O.  A.  C.,  1898, 
U.  S.  Dept.  Agr.,  Div.  Chem.  Bui.  56,  p.  67. 

Die  Bestimmung  von  Kohlenoxyd,  Methan,  und  Wasserstoff  durch 
Verbrennung  [The  Determination  of  Carbon  Monoxid,  Methane, 
and  Hydrogen  by  Combustion].  (With  L.  M.  Dennis)  Zeitschrift 
fur  Anorganische  Chemie,  vol.  19,  p.  179.  Also  Journ.  Amer. 
Chem.  Soc.,  vol.  21,  p.  398. 

87 


CYRIL  GEORGE  HOPKINS 

1900  Composition  and  Digestibility  of  Corn  Fodder  and  Corn  Stover.     ///. 

Agr.  Exp.  Sta.  Bui.  58. 

1901  The  Elements  of  Fertility  Taken  from  the  Soil  by  a  Crop  of  Corn,  and 

How  to  Restore  Them.    Rpt.  III.  farmer?  Intl.,  vol.  6,  p.  83. 
Methods  of  Standardizing  Acid  Solutions.     Journ.  Amer.  Chem.  Soc., 
vol.  23,  p.  727. 

1902  Alfalfa  on  Illinois  Soil.    ///.  Agr.  Exp.  Sta.  Bui.  76. 
Methods  of  Corn  Breeding.     ///.  Agr.  Exp.  Sta.  Bui.  82. 
Instructions  for  Growing  Sugar  Beets.     ///.  Agr.  Exp.  Sta.  Circ.  52. 
Report  of  Committee  on  Soil  Investigations  and  Experiments.    Rpt.  III. 

Farmers'  Inst.,  vol.  7,  p.  128. 
Separation  of  Alkalies  in  Soil  Analysis  by  the  Official  Method.     Proc. 

18th  Ann.  Con.  of  A.  O.  A.  C.,  1901,  U.  S.  Dept.  Agr.,  Div.  Chem. 

Bui.  67,  p.  43. 
Method  for  Taking  Samples  of  Soils  for  Analysis.     Proc.  18th  Ann. 

Con.  of  A.  O.  A.  C.,  1901,  U.  S.  Dept.  Agr.,  Div.  Chem.  Bui.  67, 

p.  152. 
Fixation  of  Atmospheric  Nitrogen  by  Alfalfa  on  Ordinary  Prairie  Soils 

under   Various   Treatments.     Journ.   Amer.    Chem.    Soc.,   vol.   24, 

p.  1155. 

1903  The  Structure  of  the  Corn  Kernel  and  the  Composition  of  its  Different 

Parts.     (With  Louie  H.  Smith  and  Edward  M.  East)    ///.  Agr. 
Exp.  Sta.  Bui.  87. 

Soil  Treatment  for  Wheat  in  Rotation,  with  Special  Reference  to  South- 
ern Illinois  Soils.  ///.  Agr.  Exp.  Sta.  Bui.  88. 

Sugar  Beet  Investigations  in  Illinois — Report  of  Progress.  (With  L.  H. 
Smith)  ///.  Agr.  Exp.  Sta.  Circ.  62. 

Investigation  of  Illinois  Soils — Report  of  Progress.    ///.  Agr.  Exp.  Sta. 

Circ.  64. 
Corn   Experiments   in   Illinois — Report  of  Progress.      (With  Louie   H. 

Smith  and  Archibald  D.  Shamel)  ///.  Agr.  Exp.  Sta.  Circ.  66. 

Methods  of  Maintaining  the  Productive  Capacity  of  Illinois  Soils.  ///. 
Agr.  Exp.  Sta.  Circ.  68.  Also  Report  III.  Farmers'  Inst.,  vol.  8, 
p.  119. 

Infected  Alfalfa  Soil.    ///.  Agr.  Exp.  Sta.  Circ.  70. 

Present  Status  of  Soil  Investigation.  ///.  Agr.  Exp.  Sta.  Circ.  72.  Also 
Proc.  17th  Ann.  Con.  Amer.  Agr.  Colleges  and  Experiment  Sta- 
tions, V.  S.  D.  A.,  Office  of  Exp.  Sta.  Bui.  142,  p.  95. 

Methods  of  Corn  Breeding.  Proc.  16th  Ann.  Con.  Amer.  Agr.  Colleges 
and  Experiment  Stations,  U.  S.  D.  A.,  Office  of  Exp.  Sta.  Bui. 
123,  p.  91. 

A  Quantitative  Method  for  Determining  the  Acidity  of  Soils.  (With 
W.  H.  Knox  and  J.  H.  Pettit)  Proc.  19th  Ann.  Con.  of  A.  O.  A.  C., 
1902,  U.  S.  Dept.  Agr.,  Div.  Chem.  Bui.  73,  p.  114. 

The  Chemical  Composition  of  Different  Parts  of  the  Corn  Kernel. 
(With  L.  H.  Smith  and  E.  M.  East)  Journ.  Amer.  Chem.  Soc., 
vol.  25,  p.  1166. 


WRITINGS 

1904  Soil  Treatment  for  Peaty  Swamp  Lands,  Including  Reference  to  Sand 

and  "Alkali"  Soils.  ///.  Agr.  Exp.  Sta.  Bui.  93. 
Nitrogen  Bacteria  and  Legumes.    ///.  Agr.  Exp.  Sta.  Bui.  94. 
Soil    Fertility  Experiments.      Univ.    of   III.   Agr.    College   Ext.    Circ., 

Form  6. 
Reading  Course  in  Soil  Fertility.  Univ.  of  III.  Agr.  College  Ext.  Circ., 

Form  9. 
Some  Possibilities  of  Soil  Improvement  in  Illinois.    Report  III.  Farmers' 

Inst.,  vol.  9,  p.  115. 

The  Present  Status  of  Soil  Investigation.    Science,  n.s.,  vol.  19,  p.  626. 
Factors   in    Crop   Production   with   Special    Reference  to   Plant   Food. 

Ohio  State  Ed.  Agr.,  59th  Ann.  Rpt.,  p.  370. 

1905  Soil  Treatment  for  the  Lower  Illinois  Glaciation.     (With  J.  E.  Read- 

himer)  ///.  Agr.  Exp.  Sta.  Bui.  99. 

Directions  for  the  Breeding  of  Corn  Including  Methods  for  the  Pre- 
vention of  Inbreeding.     (With  Louie  H.  Smith  and  Edward  M. 

East)  ///.  Agr.  Exp.  Sta.  Bui.  100. 

Factors  in  Crop  Production  with  Special  Reference  to  Permanent  Agri- 
culture in  Illinois.     ///.  Agr.  Exp.  Sta.   Circ.  87.     Also  Rpt.  III. 

Farmers'  Inst.,  vol.  10,  p.  148. 

Soil  Improvement  for  the  Illinois  Corn  Belt.    ///.  Agr.  Exp.  Sta.  Circ.  96. 
Soil  Treatment  for  Wheat  on  the  Poorer  Lands  of  the  Illinois  Wheat 

Belt.    ///.  Agr.  Exp.  Sta.  Circ.  97. 
The  "Gist"  of  Four  Years'   Soil   Investigation  in  the  Illinois  Wheat 

Belt.      (With  J.  H.  Pettit  and  J.  E.  Readhimer)    ///.  Agr.  Exp. 

Sta.  Circ.  99. 
The  "Gist"  of  Four   Years'   Soil    Investigations  in  the  Illinois  Corn 

Belt.     (With  J.  H.  Pettit  and  J.  E.  Readhimer)  ///.  Agr.  Exp.  Sta. 

Circ.  100. 
Experiments  in  Corn  Breeding.    Proc.  Amer.  Breeders'  Assoc.,  vol.  1, 

p.  65. 
Inbreeding  of  Corn  and  Methods  of  Prevention.    Proc.  Amer.  Breeders' 

Assoc.,  vol.  1,  p.  147. 
Report  on  Soils.    Proc.  21st  Ann.  Con.  of  A.  O.  A.  C.t  1904,  U.  S.  Dept. 

Agr.,  Div.  Chem.  Bui.  90,  p.  170. 

1906  Science  and  Sense  in  the  Inoculation  of  Legumes.     ///.  Agr.  Exp.  Sta. 

Circ.  86. 

The  Duty  of  Chemistry  to  Agriculture.    ///.  Agr.  Exp.  Sta.  Circ.  105. 
Address  (Title  not  given).    Rpt.  III.  Farmers'  Inst.,  vol.  11,  p.  55. 
Soil  Fertility  and  Permanent  Agriculture.    Proc.  19th  Ann.  Con.  Amer. 

Colleges  and  Experiment  Stations,  U.  S.  D.  A.,  Office  of  Exp.  Sta. 

Bui.  164,  p.  134. 
Report  on  Soils.    Proc.  22d  Ann.  Con.  of  A.  O.  A.  C.,  1905,  U.  S.  Dept. 

Agr.,  Div.  Chem.  Bui.  99,  p.  109. 
Comparative  Value  of  Steamed  Bone  Meal  and  Finely  Ground  Natural 

Rock  Phosphate.    Proc.  22d  Ann.  Con.  of  A.  O.  A.  C.,  1905,  U.  S. 

Dept.  Agr.,  Div.  Chem.  Bui.  99,  p.  110. 

89 


CYRIL  GEORGE  HOPKINS 

Increasing  Fertility.  Pub.  by  International  Harvester  Co.  in  Farm  Sci- 
ence. Also  pub.  in  For  Better  Crops,  by  the  Service  Bureau  of  the 
International  Harvester  Co.  of  America. 

1907  Soil  Improvement  for  the  Worn  Hill   Lands  of  Illinois.      (With  J.  E. 

Readhimer)  ///.  Agr.  Exp.  Sta.  Bui.  115. 
Illinois   Soils  in  Relation  to  Systems  of  Permanent  Agriculture.     ///. 

Agr.  Exp.  Sta.  Circ.  108.     Also  Rpt.  III.  Farmers'  Inst.,  vol.  12, 

p.  248. 

Improvement  of  Upland  Timber  Soils  of  Illinois.  (With  J.  E.  Read- 
himer) ///.  Agr.  Exp.  Sta.  Circ.  109. 

Ground  Limestone  for  Acid  Soils.    ///.  Agr.  Exp.  Sta.  Circ.  110. 
Culture  Experiments  for  Determining  Fertilizer  Needs.     Cyclopedia  of 

American  Agriculture,  vol.  1,  p.  472. 
The  Breeding  of  Maize.     Cyclopedia  of  American  Agriculture,  vol.  2, 

P.  421. 
Unification  of  Terms  Used  in  Reporting  Analytical   Results.     Journ. 

Amer.  Chem.  Soc.,  vol.  29,  p.  1312. 
Land  Ruin  Compared  with  Soil  Improvement.    Penn.  Agr.  Dept.  Bui. 

154,  p.  118. 

1908  The  Fertility  in  Illinois  Soils.     (With  James  H.  Pettit)  ///.  Agr.  Exp. 

Sta.  Bui.  123. 
Thirty  Years  of  Crop  Rotations  on  the  Common  Prairie  Soils  of  Illinois. 

(With  J.  E.  Readhimer  and  Wm.  G.  Eckhardt)  ///.  Agr.  Exp.  Sta. 

Bui.  125. 
Phosphorus  and  Humus  in  Relation  to  Illinois  Soils.     ///.'  Agr.  Exp. 

Sta.  Circ.  116.    Also  Rpt.  III.  Farmers'  Inst.,  vol.  13,  p.  177. 
Seven   Years'    Soil    Investigation   in    Southern    Illinois.      (With   J.    H. 

Pettit  and  J.  E.  Readhimer)   ///.  Agr.  Exp.  Sta.  Circ.  122. 
Chemical  Principles  of  Soil  Fertility.    ///.  Agr.  Exp.  Sta.  Circ.  124. 
Soils  and  Crops.    Rpt.  III.  Farmers'  Inst.,  vol.  13,  p.  266. 
Alfalfa.    Rpt.  III.  Farmers'  Inst.,  vol.  13,  p.  311. 
Chemical  Principles  of  Soil  Classification.    Science,  n.s.,  vol.  28,  p.  857. 

1909  Shall  We  Use  Natural  Rock  Phosphate  or  Manufactured  Acid  Phos- 

phate for  the  Permanent  Improvement  of  Illinois  Soils?     ///.  Agr. 

Exp.  Sta.  Circ.  127. 
The   Use  of  Commercial    Fertilizers.     ///.  Agr.  Exp.  Sta.   Circ.  129. 

Also  Rpt.  III.  Farmers'  Inst.,  vol.  14,  p.  201. 
A  Phosphate   Problem   for   Illinois  Landowners.     ///.  Agr.  Exp.  Sta. 

Circ.  130. 
Lincoln's  View  of  Agriculture    (with  Some  Projections  by   Hopkins — 

1909).    Pub.  by  the  University  of  Illinois. 

Illinois  Corn  Belt  Soil.     The  Illinois  Agriculturist,  vol.  13,  No.  4. 
How  Can  the  Farmer  Maintain  the  Fertility  of  the  Soil?     Quart.  Rpt. 

Kans.  Ed.  Agr.,  28,  No.  109,  p.  35. 

1910  Crop  Rotation  for  Illinois  Soils.     ///.  Agr.  Exp.  Sta.  Circ.  141.     Also 

Rpt.  III.  Farmers'  Inst.,  vol.  15,  p.  156. 

90 


WRITINGS 

European    Practice    and    American   Theory   Concerning   Soil    Fertility. 

///.  Agr.  Exp.  Sta.  Circ.  142. 
The  Story  of  a  King  and  Queen.     ///.  Agr.  Exp.  Sta.  Circ.  145.    Also 

Popular  Science  Monthly,  vol.  78,  p.  251. 

The  Story  of  the  Soil.    Pub.  by  R.  G.  Badger  of  the  Gorham  Press. 
Soil  Fertility  and  Permanent  Agriculture.     Pub.  by  Ginn  &  Co. 
Soil  Fertility  Manual.     (With  J.  H.  Pettit)   Pub.  by  Ginn  &  Co. 
The  Rotation  of  Crops.     The  Illinois  Agriculturist,  vol.  14,  No.  4. 
Soil  Experiment  Fields.     The  Illinois  Agriculturist,  vol.  14,  No.  9. 
The  Relation  of  Pure  and  Applied  Science  in  Education.     Trans.  III. 

Acad.  Sci.,  vol.  3,  p.  72.    Also  Science,  n.s.,  vol.  31,  p.  655. 
Calendar  Reform.    Science,  n.s.,  vol.  32,  p.  917. 
Saving    the    Soil — Practical    Methods    for    Permanent    Productiveness. 

Pub.  by  Bankers'  Assoc.  of  111. 
The  Soil  as  a  Bank.    Pub.  by  III.  Bankers'  Assoc. 

1911  Methods    and   Results   of   Ten    Years'    Soil    Investigations   in    Illinois. 

///.  Agr.  Exp.  Sta.  Circ.  149,  Part  II.    Also  Rpt.  111.  Farmers'  Inst. 

vol.  16,  p.  24. 
Collecting  and  Testing  Soil  Samples.     (With  J.  H.  Pettit)     ///.  Agr. 

Exp.  Sta.  Circ.  150. 
Clay   County   Soils.      (With   J.    G.    Mosier,  J.   H.    Pettit,    and   J.   E. 

Readhimer)     ///.  Agr.  Exp.  Sta.  Soil  Rpt.  1. 
Moultrie  County  Soils.      (With  J.  G.  Mosier,  J.   H.  Pettit,  and  J.  E. 

Readhimer)     ///.  Agr.  Exp.  Sta.  Soil  Rpt.  2. 
Analysis  of  Statistics  of  Crop  Production  and  Population.     The  Illinois 

Agriculturist,  vol.  15,  No.  4. 
Soils  and  Crops.    Science,  n.s.,  vol.  33,  p.  423. 
Soil  Fertility  and  Its  Relation  to  Continued  Prosperity.     Trans.  Natl. 

Lime  Manfrs.  Assoc.,  9th  Ann.  Meeting,  p.  136. 
Worn  Out  Soils.    Pub.  by  the  Dollar  Savings  &  Trust  Co. 
The  Practical  Use  of  Science  in  Soil  Improvement.    Pub.  by  III.  Assoc. 

County  Farm  Superintendents. 

1912  Peaty  Swamp  Lands;    Sand  and  "Alkali"  Soils.      (With  J.  E.  Read- 

himer and  O.  S.  Fisher)     ///.  Agr.  Exp.  Sta.  Bui.  157. 
Plant  Food  in  Relation  to  Soil  Fertility.     ///.  Agr.  Exp.  Sta.  Circ.  155. 
Soil   Fertility — Illinois   Conditions,   Needs,    and   Future  Prospects.     ///. 

Agr.  Exp.  Sta.  Circ.  157.    Also  Rpt.  III.  Farmers'  Inst.,  vol.  17,  p.  48. 
Shall   We   Use  "Complete"   Commercial   Fertilizers  in  the   Corn  Belt? 

///.  Agr.  Exp.  Sta.  Circ.  165. 
Hardin  County  Soils.      (With   J.   G.   Mosier,  J.   H.   Pettit,   and  J.   E. 

Readhimer)     ///.  Agr.  Exp.  Sta.  Soil  Rpt.  3. 
Sangamon  County  Soils.      (With  J.  G.  Mosier,  J.  H.  Pettit,  and  J.  E. 

Readhimer)     ///.  Agr.  Exp.  Sta.  Soil  Rpt.  4. 
Soil  Fertility  and  Permanent  Agriculture  (An  address  delivered  before 

the  meeting  of  the  Third  National   Conservation  Congress).     The 

Illinois  Agriculturist,  vol.  16,  No.  4. 

91 


CYRIL  GEORGE  HOPKINS 

Plant  Food  in  Relation  to  Soil  Fertility.    Science,  n.$.,  vol.  36,  p.  616. 
Some   Economic   History  of  the  Original   Thirteen   States.     /.   H.   C. 

Almanac,  p.  28.    Pub.  by  The  International  Harvester  Co. 
Soil  Improvement  and  Permanent  Agriculture  for  New  England.    Pub. 

by  Vermont  Marl  Co. 

1913  The  Illinois  System  of  Permanent  Fertility.     ///.  Agr.  Exp.  Sta.  Circ. 

167.    Also  Rpt.  111.  Farmers'  Inst.,  vol.  18,  p.  90. 
Bread  from  Stones.    ///.  Agr.  Exp.  Sta.  Circ.  168. 
LaSalle  County  Soils.      (With  J.  G.  Mosier,  J.  H,  Pettit,  and  J.  E. 

Readhimer)     ///.  Agr.  Exp.  Sta.  Soil  Rpt.  5. 
Knox  County   Soils.      (With   J.   G.   Mosier,   J.  H.   Pettit,    and  J.   E. 

Readhimer)     ///.  Agr.  Exp.  Sta.  Soil  Rpt.  6. 
McDonough  County  Soils.     (With  J.  G.  Mosier,  J.  H.  Pettit,  and  O.  S. 

Fisher)     ///.  Agr.  Exp.  Sta.  Soil  Rpt.  7. 
Bond    County   Soils.      (With  J.   G.   Mosier,  J.   H.   Pettit,   and   O.   S. 

Fisher)     ///.  Agr.  Exp.  Sta.  Soil  Rpt.  8. 
The  Farm  That  Won't  Wear  Out.    Pub.  by  the  author. 
The  Use  of  Commercial  Fertilizers.     The  Illinois  Agriculturist,  vol. 

17,  No.  4. 

National  Problem.     The  Illinois  Agriculturist,  vol.  19,  No.  9. 
Facts  and  Fictions  about  Crops.    Science,  n.s.,  vol.  37,  p.  470. 
The  Bread  Supply.    Science,  n.s.,  vol.  38,  p.  479. 
Illinois  System  of  Permanent  Fertility.     Pub.  by  American  Steel  and 

Wire  Co. 
Saving  the  Soil.    Pub.  by  The  Dollar  Savings  &  Trust  Co. 

1914  Permanent  Soil  Fertility.    Rpt.  III.  Farmers'  Inst.,  vol.  19,  p.  24. 

The  Illinois  System  of  Permanent  Fertility.  Popular  Science  Monthly, 
84,  No.  1,  p.  52. 

Ground  Limestone  for  Southern  Soils.  Farm  Truth  1,  Southern  Settle- 
ment and  Development  Organization. 

Soil  Fertility — the  Greatest  Necessity  and  the  Best  Investment.  Amer- 
ican Bankers'  Assoc.,  vol.  40,  p.  199. 

Agriculture's  Pressing  Need.     The  Banker  Farmer,  vol.  1,  No.  10,  p.  2. 

Soil  Fertility  in  Relation  to  General  Prosperity.  Rpt.  44th.  Ann.  Meeting 
Vermont  Dairymen's  Assoc.,  p.  74. 

Address  (title  not  given).  Rpt.  44th  Ann.  Meeting  Vermont  Dairy- 
men's Assoc.,  p.  38. 

1915  Radium  as  a  Fertilizer.     (With  Ward  H.  Sachs)     ///.  Agr.  Exp.  Sta. 

Bui.  177. 
Potassium  from  the  Soil.     (With  J.  P.  Aumer)     ///.  Agr.  Exp.  Sta. 

Bui.  182. 
How  Not  to  Treat  Illinois  Soils.     ///.  Agr.  Exp.  Sta.  Circ.  181.    Also 

Rpt.  III.  Farmers'  Inst.,  vol.  20,  p.  20. 
Lake  County  Soils.     (With  J.  G.  Mosier,  E.  Van  Alstine,  and  F.  W. 

Garrett)     ///.  Agr.  Exp.  Sta.  Soil  Rpt.  9. 


WRITINGS 

McLean  County  Soils.     (With  J.  G.  Mosier,  E.  Van  Alstine,  and  F.  W. 

Garrett)     ///.  Agr.  Exp.  Sta.  Soil  Rpt.  10. 
Pike  County  Soils.     (With  J.  G.  Mosier,  E.  Van  Alstine,  and  F.  W. 

Garrett)     ///.  Agr.  Exp.  Sta.  Soil  Rpt.  11. 

Charles  Embree  Thorn.     The  Illinois  Agriculturist,  vol.  19,  No.   6. 
Illinois  System  of  Permanent  Fertility.     The  Illinois  Agriculturist,  vol. 

20,  No.  3. 
Radium  Fertilizer  in  Field  Tests.     (With  Ward  H.  Sachs)     Science, 

n.s.,  vol.  41,  p.  732. 
Effect  of  Soil  Depletion  and  Soil  Enrichment  on  Loan  Values  of  Farms. 

Pub.  by  Assoc.  of  Life  Insurance  Presidents. 
Principles  and  Profits  in  Soil  Improvement.     The  Banker  Farmer,  vol. 

2,  No.  9,  p.  18. 

1916  Soil  Bacteria  and  Phosphates.     (With  Albert  L.  Whiting)     ///.  Agr. 

Exp.  Sta.  Bui.  190. 
Summary  of  Illinois  Soil  Investigations.     (With  J.  G.  Mosier  and  F.  C. 

Bauer)     ///.  Agr.  Exp.  Sta.  Bui.  193. 
A  Limestone  Tester.    ///.  Agr.  Exp.  Sta.  Circ.  185. 
Phosphates  and  Honesty.    ///.  Agr.  Exp.  Sta.  Circ.  186,  Part  II.    Also 

Rpt.  III.  Farmers'  Inst.,  vol.  21,  p.  26. 
Winnebago  County  Soils.     (With  J.  G.  Mosier,  E.  Van  Alstine,  and 

F.  W.  Garrett)     ///.  Agr.  Exp.  Sta.  Soil  Rpt.  12. 
Kankakee  County  Soils.      (With  J.  G.  Mosier,  E.  Van  Alstine,   and 

F.  W.  Garrett)     ///.  Agr.  Exp.  Sta.  Soil  Rpt.  13. 
Tazewell   County  Soils.      (With  J.   G.   Mosier,  E.  Van  Alstine,  and 

F.  W.  Garrett)     ///.  Agr.  Exp.  Sta.  Soil  Rpt.  U. 
Soil  Bacteria  and  Phosphates.      (With  Albert  L.  Whiting)     Science, 

n.$.,  vol.  44,  p.  246. 
Methods  of  Criticism  of  "Soil  Bacteria  and  Phosphates."     (With  Albert 

L.  Whiting)     Science,  n.s.,  vol.  44,  p.  649. 

1917  A  New  Limestone  Tester.    ///.  Agr.  Exp.  Sta.  Bui.  194. 

Why  Illinois  Produces  only  Half  a  Crop.  ///.  Agr.  Exp.  Sta.  Circ.  193. 
Also  Rpt.  III.  Farmers'  Inst.,  vol.  22,  p.  22. 

Essentials  in  Larger  Food  Production.    ///.  Agr.  Exp.  Sta.  Circ.  197. 

Ten  Wheat  Fields  in  "Egypt"— A  Story  in  Figures.  (With  J.  E.  Whit- 
church  and  H.  F.  T.  Fahrnkopf)  ///.  Agr.  Exp.  Sta.  Circ.  208. 

Edgar  County  Soils.  (With  J.  G.  Mosier,  E.  Van  Alstine,  and  F.  W. 
Garrett)  ///.  Agr.  Exp.  Sta.  Soil  Rpt.  15. 

DuPage  County  Soils.  (With  J.  G.  Mosier,  E.  Van  Alstine,  and  F.  W. 
Garrett)  ///.  Agr.  Exp.  Sta.  Soil  Rpt.  16. 

Kane  County  Soils.  (With  J.  G.  Mosier,  E.  Van  Alstine,  and  F.  W. 
Garrett)  ///.  Agr.  Exp.  Sta.  Soil  Rpt.  17. 

Lawes  and  Gilbert.    The  Illinois  Agriculturist,  vol.  21,  No.  7. 

Spreading  Straw  on  Land.     The  Illinois  Agriculturist,  vol.  22,  No.  1. 

A  Limestone  Tester.    Journ.  Amer.  Soc.  Agr  on.,  vol.  9,  p.  82. 

93 


CYRIL  GEORGE  HOPKINS 

Phosphate  Experiments.     Science,  n.s.,  vol.  45,  p.  213. 
A  Simple  Explanation.    Science,  n.s.,  vol.  46,  p.  362. 

1918  Sources  of  Fertilizing  Materials  for  Illinois  Farms.    (With  F.  C.  Bauer) 

///.  Agr.  Exp.  Sta.  Circ.  223. 

Illinois  Wheat  Yields  with  Nature's  Fertilizers.  (With  J.  E.  Whit- 
church,  F.  W.  Garrett,  H.  F.  T.  Fahrnkopf,  H.  C.  Gilkerson,  H.  J. 
Snider,  and  E.  E.  Click)  ///.  Agr.  Exp.  Sta.  Circ.  229. 

Champaign  County  Soils.  (With  J.  G.  Mosier,  E.  Van  Alstine,  and 
F.  W.  Garrett)  ///.  Agr.  Exp.  Sta.  Soil  Rpt.  18. 

Protecting  the  Greatest  Base  of  Supplies.  Rpt.  III.  Farmers'  Inst.,  vol. 
23,  p.  21. 

1919  Illinois  Crop  Yields  from  Soil  Experiment  Fields.     (With  F.  W.  Gar- 

rett, J.  E.  Whitchurch,  and  H.  F.  T.  Fahrnkopf)     ///.  Agr.  Exp. 
Sta,  Bui.  219. 

1919  Yields  from  Ten  Wheat  Fields  in  "Egypt"  (With  J.  E.  Whit- 
church,  H.  F.  T.  Fahrnkopf,  and  F.  H.  Kelley)  ///.  Agr.  Exp.  Sta. 
Circ.  236. 

H  EAAAS  MIIOPEI  NA  IIAPAFH  HEPI220TEPH  TPO*H 
[How  Greece  Can  Produce  More  Food].  (Translated  into  Greek 
by  George  Bouyoucos)  Pub.  by  The  American  Red  Cross  Com- 
mission to  Greece.  To  be  reprinted  in  English  by  the  University 
of  Illinois. 


NOTE. — In  this  compilation  no  attempt  has  been  made  to  include  the 
numerous  contributions  made  by  Doctor  Hopkins  in  the  form  of  articles, 
letters,  and  notes  to  the  various  newspapers  and  periodicals  representing  the 
agricultural  press. 


94 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  AT  LOS  ANGELES 
THE  UNIVERSITY  LIBRARY 


This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below 


Form  L-9-15«i-7,'35 


UNIVERSITY  of  CALIFORNIA 

AT 

LOS  ANGELES 
LIBRARY 


S417 

H7I2   Illinois. 

University  - 
In  memoriam.  Cyril 
George  Hopkins. 


-  jH 


